America’s fate is sealed, thanks to the failing state of education in this country.

The US spends close to $400 billion annually to fund public education. Indeed, of all the money that is spent by state governments, 3/5 goes toward education. In America over $7700 per pupil is spent every year to make sure Johnny receives a quality education. And what do we have to show for the vast outplay in taxpayer dollars? In short…not much. The US spends far more on education than almost every other country in the world with the exception of Switzerland and Austria. The US spends far more than Japan, more than Great Britain, more than any country in Scandinavia, more than France and more than South Africa. Yet according to almost every measure, the US lags far behind virtually all of these nations in academic performance. In fact, in terms of mathematical skill, US children ranked behind Hong Kong, Finland, South Korea, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein, Japan, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Iceland, Denmark, France, Sweden, Austria, Germany, Ireland, Slovak Republic, Norway, Luxembourg, Poland, Hungary, Spain, and Latvia. They faired a little better in reading and science but still far behind most of Western Europe, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan.

This academic deficiency will inevitably manifest itself in the form of a sluggish economy, diminished productivity and a loss of competitiveness vis-à-vis the rest of the industrialized world. Why? What accounts for this abysmal state of affairs? Well quite simply (though it pains us to say it)…its our culture. Politicians have a number of buzzwords and proposed solutions to stop the further degradation of education in America. We frequently here about increased spending. Politicians would have you believe that if we spend more money the problem will simply go away (in reality this is just window dressing to placate the voters). In reality this is a foolhardy argument. The US already spends far more than most every nation on Earth with practically nothing to show for it. In fact, nations like South Korea spend so little per student on education that they aren’t even ranked in the top 20, yet they surpass the US by far in every category. We hear about class size. But this too is a non-issue. In Japan for example, the average class size is 35, yet Japan far exceeds the US in terms of academic performance. American culture has failed our children. Take a visit to your average neighborhood public school and you will see what we mean. When you walk in you will see nothing but distractions, nothing but feel good exercises and sports glorification to distract from the fact that Johnny is a moron. You will see advertisements for dances and yearbooks. You will see display case after display case filled with trophies for track and field, football, soccer and baseball. You will also notice this fact in terms of how schools choose to allocate their resources. Ask the debate or quiz bowl coach how much money their teams receive and then go talk to the cheerleaders or the football team. Our culture places a very low value on knowledge and education. Most people can tell you who won last year’s American Idol, but know nothing of government, business, science or literature. Many Americans would sooner cut off their right arm than miss the Super Bowl, but don’t ask them to take their child to a museum. If you ask the average teacher what their biggest gripe is they will tell you its lack of parental involvement. Parents seem not to care if Johnny passes or fails math, just don’t bother me about it.

If all this is true, then why has America been so blessed in terms of quality of living, its economy and its productivity? In the first place America has a very favorable climate for business, in contrast with many other industrialized countries and America’s universities remain top notch. Indeed, America’s colleges are some of the best in the world, and competition has a lot to do with that. Unlike public schools, Colleges and Universities must compete for students and this creates higher standards and thus a higher quality education. In college, unlike in earlier grades, parents can’t excuse failure and social promotion is unheard of, but with so many children failing to make the grade, like the 100,000 California 12th graders who can’t pass an 8th grade math test, how long will this prosperity last? Much will depend on the attitude of ordinary Americans. Will we continue to glorify the inane? Will we continue to obsess over the mind numbing details of Paris Hilton’s sexual escapades or what Hollywood star is sleeping with whom? Or will we embrace something tangible?
http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/education/entries/2005/10/11/what_am_i_to_do.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0923110.html
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/edu_spe_per_sec_sch_stu