The relative deficiencies of U.S. public schools are a serious concern to parents and policymakers. But they should be of concern to all Americans as a globalizing world introduces new competition for talent markets capital and opportunity. In Endangering Prosperity a trio of experts on international education policy compares the performance of American schools against that of other nations. The net result is a mixed but largely disappointing picture that clearly shows where improvement is most needed. The authorsampapos objective is not to explain the deep causes of past failures but to document how dramatically the U.S. school system has failed its students and its citizens. It is a wakeup call for structural reform. To move forward to a different and better future requires that we understand just how serious a situation America faces today.For example the authors consider the Programme for International Student Assessment PISA an international mathematics examination. America is stuck in the middle of average scores barely beating out European countries whose national economies are in the red zone. U.S. performance as measured against stronger economies is even weakeramp151in total 32 nations outperformed the United States. The authors also delve into comparative reading scores. A mere 31 percent of U.S. students in the class of 2011 could perform at the proficient level as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress NAEP program compared with South Koreaampaposs result of 47 percent. And while some observers may downplay the significance of crossglobe comparisons they should note that Canadian students are dramatically outpacing their U.S. counterparts as well.Clearly something is wrong with this picture and this book clearly explicates the costs of inaction. The time for incremental tweaking the system is long pastamp151wider deeper and more courageous steps are needed as this book amply demonstrates with accessibl