The US is losing ground in the global education stakes says the Guardian citing a report from the California based National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.
The US has apparently made little or headway in terms of participation levels for higher education in the past quarter century and is also losing ground in the area of skills to Asian and European countries (the Czech Republic, Slovakia and South Korea are noted). Especially disturbing is the extremely high level that fall into the lowest proficiency levels. In the US about 25% of 15 year olds fall into the lowest level compared to less than 10% for South Korea and Finland or around 16-17% for the Republic of Ireland and France.
Perhaps behaviour such as this or this might have some influence. After all if we won't teach them the truth how will we tell "is our children learning"?
A country with a decimated manufacturing industry and progressively more mechanised agricultural sector cannot afford to allow this trend to continue. If young Americans are not employable in the knowledge based economy there is only so much room, at current wage rates, in the service sector.
An executive summary of the report may be found here.
The full report (PDF) may be found here.
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