Around the world, education is both means and end, the key to economic advancement, health, family and community planning and innovation. It is especially crucial now, as young people come of age in the face of global climate change, massive urbanization, the challenge to create peace out of conflict and the race to sustain the Earth as human demands intensify. 

Boston offers a microcosm of the nation’s greatest human capital challenges. Almost uniquely, Boston is also characterized by a culture of innovation, an unparalleled concentration of colleges and universities, leading-edge public schools, and a track record of commitment to eliminating disparities in health and education. In that context, Boston is already a learning laboratory and a showcase for solutions to the world’s single greatest challenge in its toughest century: educational excellence for all. 

In Boston, we have learned the importance of the following to improving education outcomes across the pipeline:

• Early nurturing and early education to support physical, cognitive and emotional development;
• Reading proficiency to enable children to “read to learn” and engage in independent learning and problem solving;
• School autonomy to boost accountability and innovation; _ Teacher quality;
• Extended length of the school day and year;
• Quality out-of-school time;
• The arts and arts education;
• Healthy lifestyles—diet and fitness;
• Staying in school to avoid the severe risks of dropping out, from teen pregnancy and incarceration to a lifetime of low earnings—the seeds of intergenerational poverty;
• Bridging high school graduation and college completion to address a constellation of potential obstacles—from low expectations to financial hurdles;
• Parental literacy and educational attainment to lift both child and family outcomes. 

A high quality education for all is now an imperative. 

If not now, when? If not here, where? If not us, who?