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high schools every day, close to 1.5 million a year.

According to one estimate, if the numbers of young people leaving school early could be cut by 50 percent, the net gain to the U.S. economy from savings in social programs and gains in additional tax revenues could be around $90 billion a year - that's almost $1 trillion in just over ten years.

One of the themes of TEDTalks Education is that current policies are based on a tragic misdiagnosis of the problem. They treat education as an industrial process rather than as a human one. They are driven by a culture of testing and standardization that has narrowed the curriculum and sees students as data points and teachers as functionaries rather than as living breathing people.

To improve our schools, we have to humanize them and make education personal to every student and teacher in the system.

The key to personalizing education is to invest properly in the professional development of educators. As Bill Gates argues, teachers need mentors too.

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Teaching is an art form. Great teachers know they have to cultivate curiosity, passion and creativity in their students.

achievement soars when teachers fire the imaginations of their students with a true spirit of inquiry.

All students have their own stories, motivations and circumstances and teachers have to connect with them personally.

"Everyone has a story," she says. "Everyone has a struggle and everyone needs help along the way."

We have millions of young people walking away from education, he says. But "right now, we could save them all," if we're prepared to innovate fundamentally and not just do more of the same.

"Every child," she says, "deserves a champion who will never give up on them... and insists they become the best they can possibly be."

give them the creative freedom to innovate and do their jobs within a proper framework of public accountability.

There are those who say that we can't afford to personalize education to every student. The fact is that we can't afford not to.