Last month in the Wisconsin legislature, a bipartisan bill was unveiled to create the nation’s first Education Savings Account program dedicated to the needs of gifted and talented students. By giving families access to new educational opportunities and more control over their children’s education, the ESA bill could yield strong returns for student achievement in the Badger State.

An under-told story in K-12 education is how the U.S. struggles to educate its most gifted and talented students. Thirty of the 56 leading economically developed countries have higher percentages of students scoring at the advanced level than the U.S., according a 2012 analysis of the PISA test. This contributes to the U.S. falling behind its global peers, ranking 40th in math and 24th in reading on the 2015 PISA.