Should We Invest $10 billion ‘Peace Dividend’ in Education?

As President Obama announced the draw-down of 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by September 2012, he said it was time for our country to focus on nation-building here at home. The troop reduction could save $10 billion next year, so we asked our listeners: what should we do with that windfall? Many of you told us to invest in education.
   Tony Wagner is the Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, and author of the book “The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need–and What We Can Do About It” He responds to listeners’ comments, and tells us that the United States could do three simple things to radically improve education.