America’s Class Struggle: Eric Hanushek on Learning Declines and Hope for Revitalizing Education

Quick Overview

US learning performance peaked in 2013, and the subsequent declines, accelerated by the pandemic, carry a severe economic cost equivalent to an 8% reduction in lifetime earnings for affected students, equating to three times the current GDP if achievement does not recover to pre-pandemic levels.

Key Points: Math performance declines since 2013 saw 72% of the total drop occur during the pandemic period, while only a quarter of the reading decline happened concurrently. The economic impact of learning declines is estimated to reduce lifetime earnings of affected students by 8%, potentially costing the economy three times the current GDP if 2013 achievement levels are not restored. Traditional education reform approaches have consistently failed, evidenced by increased per-pupil spending (2.7 times 1970 levels) yielding stagnant reading scores identical to 1975 levels. The Education Futures Council recommends fundamental institutional change centered on making student achievement the centerpiece of policy and providing incentives for performance rather than mandating behavior. In Dallas ISD, Superintendent Mike Miles successfully implemented a system paying teachers based on effectiveness rather than experience, leading to the worst schools reaching the city average performance in two years after incentives were introduced. Mississippi improved from 49th to 9th in fourth-grade reading between 2014 and 2024 due to strong state leadership insisting on achievement focus and scientific reading methods. Teacher effectiveness is the single biggest factor in school quality, where an effective teacher can increase students' aggregated lifetime incomes by $1 million more annually than an average teacher, while the worst subtract $1 million.

Context: The Hoover Institution podcast, Matters of Policy and Politics, hosted by Bill Whan, features Eric Hanushek, a leading scholar in the economics of education and recipient of the 2021 Yidan Prize. Hanushek discusses his essay, "The Pandemic in Perspective: US Learning Losses in the 21st Century," framing pandemic-related learning losses within a broader, pre-existing trend of declining student achievement dating back to 2013.