You would think the bureaucrats who run government schools would want to focus on the basics, such as teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. After all, no nation spends more per pupil on education than the United States. And based on some Cato Institute research, I suspect the OECD estimate of about $15,000 per student is a low-ball estimate of the burden on American taxpayers. So what do we get for all this money? To be blunt, the results are miserable, with Americans ranking well below average compared to our overseas competitors. Here are some comparisons on both literacy and numeracy...