As anyone who has researched the topic knows., the US doesn’t come close to measuring up when it comes to academic comparisons between American school children and children in other countries (even poorer countries).

The US spends far more on education that most every other country in the world but we have little to show for it. Nowhere is this gulf between US and foreign students more apparent than in the fields of math and science. This is increasingly apparent in the growing difficulty many high tech US-based firms have in recruiting skilled American workers. More and more these firms in Silicon Valley, Research Triangle and elsewhere have turned to highly trained foreign workers.

Our universities are filled with foreigners who learn valuable skills in math and science, only to return to their home countries, while homegrown students struggle with such rudimentary tasks as college Algebra.

As the New York Times noted in a recent editorial, the American public education system has a great many problems, principle among them is the poor quality education children receive in math and science, with teachers who aren’t trained in such fields and school systems lacking quality curriculum. Curriculum in American schools is a mile wide and an inch deep, with students lacking even a basic understanding of mathematical principles or scientific foundations.

This, however, should come as no surprise in a country where education is not valued. This should come as no surprise in a country where schools embrace principles as social promotion or refuse to give students failing grades because it harms their self-esteem or where school systems lower graduation requirements so as to accommodate the lowest common denominator. In a country were football scores and music videos take precedent, it shouldn’t surprise us in the least that we as a nation are falling behind. Or should we say: fell behind?
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/opinion/18mon2.html