Education must become a central focus to ensure a stable and prosperous U.S. in the future, write Margaret Spellings and Joel Klein. Klein lead the CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force on U.S. Education Reform and National Security.

Budgetary constraints in a tight economy have forced reform and created conflict at the University of Virginia.

Megan McArdle examines whether college is a worthwhile investment in a time when the rising costs are leaving parents and students with large amounts of debt and college degrees no longer guarantee a job after graduation.

Andrew Martin explains the challenges borrowers face as they struggle to pay off their student loans as both the federal government and the debt collection industry attempt to recoup their money.

Ken Auletta writes that there are no walls between Stanford and Silicon Valley. Should there be?

Joel Klein, former New York City schools chancellor, discusses the importance of school choice and competition to better the American education system.

Condoleezza Rice and Joel Klein, who lead the Independent Task Force on U.S. Education Reform and National Security, sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, say improving education is key to America's leadership and national security.

Using Teach For America and the Finnish model as lenses through which to understand the United States' education issues, educational policy analyst Diane Ravitch asks what should and should not be done for America's K-12 school system.

Diminishing state funding for higher education is threatening important institutions of learning and social mobility, writes Daniel de Vise.

Marc Tucker claims the most effective means to improve U.S. education is to imitate the methods used by the best-performing countries.

Frederick M. Hess and Linda Darling-Hammond argue the federal government ought to focus on four issues regarding education: transparency, constitutional protections, research, and innovation.

This report emphasizes the roles that science, technology, education, and mathematics play in producing a strong workforce and enabling the United States to remain competitive in a globalized economy.

The National Education Policy Center's William Mathis argues that a lack of high tech jobs, not low standardized test scores, hinders America's international competitiveness.

In this comment, directors at the University of Botswana explain some of the difficulties in developing partnerships between African academics and their peers in the developed world.

This report offers policy recommendations to support the expansion of choice in elementary and secondary education.

Four authors argue that in the fight to save the country's next generation, more should be done towards building up mainstream and affordable private schools in Pakistan.

In the Jamestown Foundation’s Spotlight on Terror series, an interview with Maulana Sami ul-Haq, the director and chancellor of Pakistan's madrassa, Darul uloom Haqqania, Akora Khattak, where many of the top Taliban leaders, including its fugitive chief, Mullah Omar, attended. It is widely believed that the madrassa was the launching pad for the Taliban movement in the early 1990s, which is why Sami ul-Haq is also called the "Father of the Taliban."

This report analyzes madrasas' role in supporting religious extremism in Pakistan and calls for reform.

According to this report from Oxfam half of the children in Afghanistan still do not go to school despite a 500 per cent increase in enrolments in the last six years. This briefing paper outlines some of the key concerns, and proposes a plan for not only increased funding, but also reforming budget allocation and planning within the Ministry of Education and amongst other actors in the education sector.

This report from Oxfam draws attention to the fact that, despite commitments made in 2000 at the World Conference on Education for All in Dakar, Senegal, rich countries are still failing to fulfill their promises to fund universal primary education by 2015.