--- title: Shrinking Education Gap Would Boost Economy, Study Says description: Narrowing the education gap between America’s school children could accelerate the economy and significantly increase government revenues canonical: https://time.com/3693330/education-school-u-s-economy-washington-center-for-equitable-growth/ author: Kevin McSpadden article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-03T06:27:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:05:39.184Z article:section: Politics og:title: Shrink Education Gap to Boost Economy og:description: A modest improvement in test scores could see GDP rise by $2.5 trillion by 2050. og:url: https://time.com/3693330/education-school-u-s-economy-washington-center-for-equitable-growth/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d43fb4d3e478578/69877d4ea988ca597e6ac40f/rtr3tb05.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: Students applaud as U.S. President Obama arrives to deliver the commencement address at the Worcester Technical High School graduation ceremony in Worcester og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Shrink Education Gap to Boost Economy twitter:description: A modest improvement in test scores could see GDP rise by $2.5 trillion by 2050. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d43fb4d3e478578/69877d4ea988ca597e6ac40f/rtr3tb05.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Shrinking the Education Gap Would Boost the Economy, Study Says > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=55f421fb-1c1d-4cfa-afae-165fe272e9a6&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Kevin McSpadden](https://time.com/author/kevin-mcspadden/) ## Kevin McSpadden Feb 3, 2015 6:27 AM UTC  Students applaud as U.S. President Barack Obama arrives to deliver the commencement address at the Worcester Technical High School graduation ceremony in Worcester, Massachusetts June 11, 2014 Students applaud as U.S. President Barack Obama arrives to deliver the commencement address at the Worcester Technical High School graduation ceremony in Worcester, Massachusetts June 11, 2014 Kevin Lamarque —Reuters by [Kevin McSpadden](https://time.com/author/kevin-mcspadden/) ## Kevin McSpadden Feb 3, 2015 6:27 AM UTC Narrowing the education gap between America’s poor and wealthy school children could [accelerate the economy](http://equitablegrowth.org/research/achievement-gap/?%5Fr=0) and significantly increase government revenues, according to a new study. An improvement in the educational performance of the average student will result in “stronger, more broadly shared economic growth, which in turn raises national income and increases government revenue, providing the means by which to invest in improving our economic future,” says the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. The study is based on findings from a 2012 assessment given by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Data showed the U.S. education system [performed poorly](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/pisa-2012-results-us.pdf) when compared against the world’s 34 developed nations, ranking below average in mathematics and just average in reading and science. The Washington Center took America’s test score of 978, and in their most modest scenario boosted the achievement scores of the country’s bottom 75% testers so that the national score reached the worldwide developed nation average of 995 (or roughly equal with France). This would raise the U.S. GDP by 1.7% by 2050, they found, which, taking inflation into account, would amount to a $2.5 trillion rise or an average of $72 billion extra per year. The country would also make over $900 billion extra in total federal, local and state revenue. If the U.S. were able to match Canada’s educational achievement score of 1044, the potential gain would be significantly higher. The study estimates that GDP would grow by 6.7%, equivalent to $10 trillion or about $285 billion per year. This latter scenario would mean a revenue boost of $3.6 trillion. The Washington Center said their findings suggest that governmental investments into education would pay for itself in the form of economic growth for many years to come. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3693330/education-school-u-s-economy-washington-center-for-equitable-growth/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3693330/education-school-u-s-economy-washington-center-for-equitable-growth/"},"headline":"Shrinking the Education Gap Would Boost the Economy, Study Says","datePublished":"2015-02-03T06:27:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:05:39.184Z","description":"A modest improvement in the lowest test scores could see GDP rise by $2.5 trillion by 2050","url":"https://time.com/3693330/education-school-u-s-economy-washington-center-for-equitable-growth/","keywords":["Education","Economy","politics","School","U.S.","Government","study","GDP","revenue"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d43fb4d3e478578/69877d4ea988ca597e6ac40f/rtr3tb05.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kevin McSpadden","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kevin-mcspadden/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d43fb4d3e478578/69877d4ea988ca597e6ac40f/rtr3tb05.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Students applaud as U.S. President Obama arrives to deliver the commencement address at the Worcester Technical High School graduation ceremony in Worcester","caption":"Students applaud as U.S. President Obama arrives to deliver the commencement address at the Worcester Technical High School graduation ceremony in Worcester","creditText":"Kevin Lamarque —Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/education/","name":"Education"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3693330/education-school-u-s-economy-washington-center-for-equitable-growth/","name":"Shrinking the Education Gap Would Boost the Economy, Study Says"}}]}] ```