From World Magazine

America the Stupid?

The Center for Education Reform last week issued an interesting -- perhaps "depressing" is a better word -- report on the state of American education.
How is it that we spend $11,000 per kid on public education in this country each year, and another $16.6 billion on remedial education for kids that have already been through the system, and yet produce results like these:

- The United States ranks 21st out of 29 Organization for Economic Development countries in mathematics scores.

- Mean Verbal SAT scores have spiraled downward between 1972 and 2005. In 2006, SAT scores experienced their largest single drop in 31 years, with verbal scores falling 5 points over the previous year.

- In Los Angeles Unified School District, 2006 testing showed that just 31 percent of students scored at or above grade level in math and only 30 percent of kids are at or above grade level in English.

- Increasingly, U.S. companies are recruiting talent from other countries.