Stupid in America

While there is some good info here, the negative emphasis on "government monopoly" is not founded. Government also has a monopoly on education in western Europe, but then families are free to choose which schools their kids will attend, and all schools, secular or religious, are funded by the government at the same support per student. If a school does not attract enough students, their funding will become inadequate and they will not survive. Furthermore, with perhaps the exception of the telephone companies, all utility services have dropped in their quality of service once they were privitized. The solution for America is, of course, to fund all schools alike, and to let parents choose the schools they wish for their kids. And then there are other things affecting kids' behavior and learning abilities such as poverty, diet etc..

Why your kids are probably dumber than Belgians

For "Stupid in America," a special report ABC will air Friday, we gave identical tests to high school students in New Jersey and in Belgium. The Belgian kids cleaned the American kids' clocks. The Belgian kids called the American students "stupid."

We didn't pick smart kids to test in Europe and dumb kids in the United States. The American students attend an above-average school in New Jersey, and New Jersey's kids have test scores that are above average for America.

The American boy who got the highest score told me: "I'm shocked, 'cause it just shows how advanced they are compared to us."

The Belgians did better because their schools are better. At age ten, American students take an international test and score well above the international average. But by age fifteen, when students from forty countries are tested, the Americans place twenty-fifth. The longer kids stay in American schools, the worse they do in international competition. They do worse than kids from countries that spend much less money on education.

Read on . . . .