they cost taxpayers $1.6 trillion and society $4.7 trillion over their lifetimes. and they represent an extraordinarily untapped resource in terms of talent and wisdom and productivity for the country. the country has since coined the term opportunity youth to describe them and issued employer tool kits to help reconnect youth to school and work. at a white house event with the president in january set the goal of 250,000 jobs for opportunity youth as a pathway back to employment. significant efforts are under way like youth build in europe to reconnect these youth. over the last couple of days we ll be talking about these benchmarks in more detail and seeing how we can make progress. but i hope that each of you will think about what you and your organizations can do to help move the needle on this civic marshall plan of action. it s now my pleasure to turn it over to one of the most extraordinary researchers, leaders and people i ve ever met. please warmly welcome bob balfan
with unemployment still high, a skills gap, a fiscal crisis and a sticky ladder of social mobility, the economy is the nation s top problem. education is one solution. secretary duncan, as mrs. powell mentioned, who will be with us shortly, said we need to educate our way to a better economy. but also the chairman of the federal reserve ben bernanke said in the long term the best way by far to improve economic opportunity and to reduce inequality is to increase the educational attainment and skills of america s workers. so our report begins with this data because we know from the 100 summits in all 50 states that america s promise led that it was the economic case for action that helped spur policymakers and business leaders and other stakeholders to accelerate their efforts. so what s at stake? the education to jobs equation is completely flipped. a generation ago, 72% of america s jobs required high school or less. by the end of the decade, 75% of all jobs will require high