Interesting ideas. Free college, free child care, and universal health care are the kinds of bold ideas we need to be talking about to build a resilient 21st century economy.

I recently read The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way by Amanda Ripley. I liked the book because although it followed a plot of human interest and anecdote to keep the reader engaged, it had a hard core of data underneath. Data doesn’t always lead you down the path you expect, and sometimes it doesn’t tell you what you want to hear. For example, there is no clear evidence that better outcomes are linked to teacher pay, class size, or funding levels, three of the policies Robert Reich advocates above. What seems to make a difference is very high expectations of both teachers and students. Finland for example closed most of its teacher colleges, moved the few remaining into a few elite universities, and made them hard to get into and hard to successfully complete. Those who successfully complete them do get paid well, but there are other countries like Spain and Norway that also pay teachers well and don’t have nearly as good outcomes. High expectations can also come from parents, but they have to be academic expectations. Parental involvement is not that helpful if it is focused on sports and activities other than academics. Parental involvement outside of school, such as reading, is also very, very important. You come away from the book kind of scratching your head about how important school really is and whether any of it is really under your control as a parent, but at least you know the factors outside of school are important and under your control.