The Smart Society

Strengthening America's Greatest Resource, Its People

Peter D. Salins

• Publisher: Encounter Books
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781594037009
• eBook ISBN: 9781594037016
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic Policy
• Index: Economics

The Smart Society offers a detailed blueprint for how the United States can recast its human capital policies to make all Americans—not just a privileged elite—smarter and more successful than ever before, at the same time stemming the size and cost of the nation’s "safety net.” The spectacular, centuries-long success of the United States is based on its having determined, early on, to be a smart country, single-mindedly developing institutions and practices that enabled its native born citizens to maximize their economic and social potential, and welcoming opportunity-seeking foreigners to join them. Over the last four decades, however, the vaunted United States human capital machine has been breaking down, dimming the economic and social prospects of millions of Americans.If The Smart Society blueprint is followed, these trends can be reversed and the nation and its people can quickly regain their preeminence in the hyper-competitive and globalized world of the 21st century. This is a most topical issue today because the country's current heated political disagreements are not just about the proper size of government, but about how the United States can reverse its apparent decline and restore its historic economic and social vigor—in other words, regain its place as the world’s "smartest” nation.

Index

Page numbers in bold refer to tables and figures.

Abbott v. Burke, 67

Abecedarian Project, 80–81, 82

accreditation: of educational institutions, 32; of teacher training programs, 113–14, 251

acculturation of immigrants, 220

African Americans, 261; and educational achievement, 12, 14, 37, 49, 50, 54, 63, 64, 78, 78, 79; and racially integrated education, 65–67; and racially segregated education, 31, 35, 41

Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), 197, 199

Alesina, Alberto, 189

America Invents Act, 174

American College Testing (ACT), 115, 116, 117, 141, 251

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 44, 170

America Works, 199

AmeriCorps, 208

Amherst College, 137

ARPANet, 161

Arum, Richard, 134

Asia: education in, 12, 13, 47, 55, 57, 99, 130; immigration to United States from, 186; labor productivity in, 155, 254; patent volume in, 172; research and development (R&D) in, 157, 158, 176, 180; work ethic in, 183–84

Asian Americans, educational achievement of, 12, 14, 49, 50, 73

assimilation of immigrants, 20, 23, 217–18, 219–20, 222–23, 259, 260

Australia, 4, 13, 48, 57, 124, 126, 155, 191

basic research, 9, 10, 160, 163–67, 164, 166, 167, 169–70, 175, 175, 177, 179–80, 254. See also research and development (R&D)

Bayh-Dole Act, 175

Bell, Alexander Graham, 156

Berlin, Irving, 21

Berliner, David, 96

Bernstein, Blanche, 197

Biggs, Andrew, 211

blacks. See African Americans

Brin, Sergey, 22

Brookhaven National Laboratory, 18

Brookings Institution, 77, 179, 207

Browne Commission, 145–47

Brown vs. Board of Education, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• One: How America Became the World’s Smartest Society—And How It Can Stay That Way
• Two: American Education: The Keystone of a Smart Society
• Three: Closing the Megagap
• Four: Closing the Mainstream Achievement Gap
• Five: Making College Pay Off
• Six: The High-Technology Workplace
• Seven: Ending Idleness as We Know It
• Eight: Importing Smart Americans
• Nine: Getting It Done
• Appendix: Basics of the United States Immigration System
• Notes
• Index