The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a think tank and publisher devoted to helping America’s leading citizens “better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries,” just released a new report “U.S. Education Reform and National Security.” The CFR acknowledged the dismal statistics on America’s k-12 public education system including high levels of spending on public schools, low graduation rates, and low levels of basic knowledge. To address these issues the CFR convened a task force to analyze the national security implications of the “failure” of the American public educational system.

The CFR task force believes that improving America’s education system should be an urgent economic as well as national security priority. "Human capital will determine power in the current century, and the failure to produce that capital will undermine America's security," the report states. "Large, undereducated swaths of the population damage the ability of the United States to physically defend itself, protect its secure information, conduct diplomacy, and grow its economy."

The CFR’s distinguished and bipartisan task force of 30 international relations, business, and education leaders chaired by former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice proposed three overarching education policy recommendations to protect America’s security and to grow our economy:

•    Implement educational expectations and assessments in subjects vital to protecting national security. "With the support of the federal government and industry partners, states should expand the Common Core State Standards, ensuring that students are mastering the skills and knowledge necessary to safeguard the country's national security."

•    Make structural changes to provide students with good choices. "Enhanced choice and competition, in an environment of equitable resource allocation, will fuel the innovation necessary to transform results."

•    Launch a "national security readiness audit" to hold schools and policymakers accountable for results and to raise public awareness. "There should be a coordinated, national effort to assess whether students are learning the skills and knowledge necessary to safeguard America's future security and prosperity. The results should be publicized to engage the American people in addressing problems and building on successes."

The Wall Street Journal has called the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) “the clubhouse of America’s establishment, a land of pinstripe suits and typically polite, status-quo thinking.” The CFR is an exclusive club of less than 5,000 members, including NBC news anchor Brian Williams, CNN commentator and foreign policy expert Fareed Zakaria, businessman Henry Kravis, actress and activist Angelina Jolie, former U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel, former FedEx CEO Frederick W. Smith, and CNN anchor Erin Burnett.

Well, the “clubhouse of America’s establishment” has just made a bold call for “enhanced choice and competition” in America’s education system. This landmark report is further evidence that school choice has moved from a fringe academic idea 60 years ago to the mainstream of intelligent American thought. We welcome the Council on Foreign Relations and its landmark report to the education reform movement! 

A summary of the task force report and the full report itself may be accessed here.