Education: Too Important for a Government Monopoly

While it is true that the difficulties of the public education system are exacerbated by the practice of tenure at the elementary and secondary level, it should also be noted when pointing out the problems with the American system that matching our students scores against those in other developed countries as apples-to-apples comparisons is to fall into a rhetorical trap. Most other developed countries segregate their students beginning at the middle-school level into vocational students and those who are college bound. All students must pass a series of tests to determine where they will go. The test scores reported to the international testing and standards organizations that purport to show other countries beating American students...