Eric Hanushek, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, dives into the critical role of education in economic growth. He reveals that skill disparities account for three-quarters of differences in long-term growth between countries. With a staggering two-thirds of youth lacking basic skills, he emphasizes the urgent need for improvement. Hanushek also discusses how achieving universal basic skills could potentially boost global GDP by $700 trillion by the century's end, shedding light on the pandemic's detrimental impact on education and the challenges faced by developing nations.