Cognitively delayed rural children are an invisible crisis

Stanford University economist Scott Rozelle caused quite a stir recently with his stark statistics regarding what he said was the human capital crisis in China.

He told a TED-style online audience in Beijing earlier this month that overall only 24 percent of China's current labor force has at least a high school education, lower than any country at China's current level of development.

"What can these people do in 2030" and what will happen when low-wage, unskilled jobs disappear in China? A prosperous, high-income country calls for high-caliber workers, said the director of Stanford's Rural Education Action Project (REAP).