Some of the statistics:

60% could identify factors that lead to an increase in the national debt. That might sound good, but take a look at how the question was phrased:

Suppose that the federal government initially has a balanced budget. Which of the following changes in government tax revenues and expenditures over time will definitely lead to an increase in the national debt?

A) Increase (to revenues); no change (to expenditures)

B) Increase; decrease

C) Decrease; increase

D) No change; decrease

The answer is C. I'm surprised that only 60% could figure out that a decrease in revenue and increase in spending would lead to an increase in debt.

32% of the students could identify how investment in education can affect economic growth.

11% could analyze how a change in the unemployment rate affects income, spending and production.

What's a shame is that I really believe that economics could be made into the most interesting high school class if it was approached with creatitivity. In recent years, there have been a slew of amazing books on economics: Freakonomics, The Undercover Economist, Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy, etc.

I bet that if schools ditched traditional textbooks and adopted a more user-friendly format, we would see these numbers skyrocket. People learn better when they're not bored.

Shocking news! Most high school students don't understand economics originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 09 Aug 2007 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.