By Matt Tarleton, Project Associate. 

“Change is debilitating when done to us, but exhilarating when done by us.” – Rosabeth Moss Kanter

This quote is one of Mac Holladay’s favorites, and it has quickly become one of mine as well. When looking back on 2009, many of us entered this year hopeful amidst tremendous economic uncertainty. We had elected a new president that inundated us with his messages of hope and change. But when I look back at what have likely been the two most time-consuming policy debates of the year – economic policy and health care – I can’t help but feel like this was a debilitating year. Change had been done to us.

Lost in all this was education policy, and understandably so. This year was reactionary. Change had been done to us and we had to focus on the short-term. But sooner rather than later we’ll need to start being proactive again and thinking about ways to better invest in our future, the future that many of our leaders may never live to see. After a year of debating and developing reactionary solutions, I am not the slightest bit exhilarated. I don’t want to get too “hopey-changey” on you but I’d really like to have that sense again that we might actually be able to start thinking proactively; that change can be done by us. I want to be exhilarated. But the debates on fiscal policy and health care policy have become mind-numbing and almost incomprehensible. We’ve focused on treating the symptoms and not the causes. After all, it’s much easier to treat the symptoms during a single term than it is to treat the causes. But as we debated the appropriate reaction to the financial and economic crisis and as we searched for the right balance between incentives and disincentives with regards to health care, we ignored a pretty big issue.

We really aren’t that smart.

I say that in jest. Well, partly in jest.

Let’s talk about Azerbaijan for a minute. It has beautiful mountains and some amazing architecture. It has a lot of oil. But it is also still a relatively poor country. Actually, it’s very poor. Per capita income is nearly 19 times lower than the United States. Yet their high school students outperform American students in math and science proficiency. So do children in Latvia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Estonia, and others. In total, 35 countries outperformed American students in mathematics and 29 countries outperformed American students in science on the 2006 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment.

I mean no disrespect, but let’s be honest. This is the United States of America. It’s the wealthiest country in the world. The place where anyone can supposedly raise a family, put food on the table, and become a homeowner through hard work and determination. It’s the land of opportunity. And it’s the place where your children might get a worse education than children in Azerbaijan, Latvia, Slovenia, or Estonia.

I want to share two recent quotes from our president.

“You know, I was in Asia, I think many of you are aware, for a week, and I was having lunch with the President of South Korea, President Lee. And I was interested in education policy -- they've grown enormously over the last 40 years. And I asked him, what are the biggest challenges in your education policy? He said, ‘the biggest challenge that I have is that my parents are too demanding.’ He said, ‘even if somebody is dirt poor, they are insisting that their kids are getting the best education.’”

“I was talking to the mayor of Shanghai, and I asked him about how he was doing recruiting teachers, given that they've got 25 million people in this one city. He said, ‘we don't have problems recruiting teachers because teaching is so revered and the pay scales for teachers are actually comparable to doctors and other professions.’”

I’m going to proceed as if I don’t need to make a strong case for the role of education in our nation’s economic development; that its value is understood and accepted. The impact of educational attainment on income and earning potential has been studied thoroughly and well documented. Likewise, the impact of education on health outcomes has also been studied extensively for decades. I could spend hours detailing these studies, but suffice it to say, the evidence is there (check out this literature review published by the OECD if you’re interested). Increasing individual educational attainment has been shown to extend life expectancy, reduce the probabilities of developing certain mental and physical illnesses, improve birth outcomes, and the list goes on. All of these effects have been shown to be independent of income effects; that is to say, a positive effect of education on health outcomes exists through acquired knowledge, independent of the effect of higher income (due to higher education) on health outcomes.

I don’t want to get carried away here. I just want to give you something to think about over the holidays and as we enter a new year. Is it possible that a path to better economic and health care policy – and better economic and health outcomes – is through better education policy and better educational outcomes?