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"According to the OECD, the U.S. spends much more per student than most other developed countries. For example, the U.S. spends more per pupil for primary education than the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and 22 other OECD countries. Only Luxembourg spends more than the U.S.

In all, Americans spend more than $500 billion annually on K-12 education-nearly 5 percent of the entire U.S. economy. A student enrolled in public school from kindergarten through 12th grade can expect local, state, and federal taxpayers to invest more than $100,000 on his or her education."

Every school board in America should become predominantly Republican/Conservative because we have a huge curriculum standards/accountability problem in this country.

Sometimes I think it's becoming part of American culture not to excel in school, or to apply oneself as much as possible to education. My wife, who is from Japan, made some interesting, albeit shocking, comments on schools here.

When she was a 10th grade exchange student, she was shocked that the math taught in 10th grade was 5th grade material back home. She essentially lost a year in math by being here. But the real reason was to become proficient in English and she accomplished that goal.

THe second thing was her shock that people would celebrate high school graduatation. She was wondering why people celebrating high school graduation were not embarrassed. According to her, graduating high school is an expectation and you are looked down upon by society if you can't do that. Graduating from college there is considered a major accomplishment and that's where the celebration should be. By celebrating a mere high school graduation, it belittles college graduation. I guess it has something to do with the heirarchial structure of Japanese society.

If you invested the 5,000 dollars each year (first grade through 12th) for each child, in a growth mutual fund that tracked the S&P 500, the end product at age 18 is 100k. Now if fifty per cent of that amount was made available to the child (down payment on a house, college education, start a small business), and the rest allowed to accrue to age 65, the remaining 50k, if allowed to accrue at historical S&P growth rates, would exceed two million dollars. But you say, that child would be illiterate and uneducated. Untrue, require a passing of the GED and reading proficiency to qualify for a driver's license and let the rest of the education be pursued by the child or his parents. End of Social Security Problem, end of Education Problem. As to the unemployed government teachers, the true teachers will find employment from the true desirers of an education, the others can do jobs that Americans just won't do.

""According to the OECD, the U.S. spends much more per student than most other developed countries."

Comparing oranges and apples.

U.S. figures include huge amounts spent on athletics, which is the most important school activity K through college.
Most other countries have club sports not included in the education budget.