Poor academic performance costs U.S. trillions in GDP

Common sense suggests that if the academic performance of a country’s schoolchildren isn’t up to snuff, the economy will suffer. But a new study reveals just how much the achievement gap is costing the U.S. The management consulting firm McKinsey $ Company estimates that the disparities in test scores (between rich and poor kids, as well as white and Hispanic, and white and black students) are robbing the U.S. of trillions of dollars annually, or US$3 to US$5 billion per day.  

The New York Times