We Have Met The Educational Enemy…

Ever since A Nation At Risk, education commentators on the right have been fixated on the international standing of American students. Given Checker Finn’s intimate relationship with that document, the Fordham Foundation has begun its own “education olympics” to highlight the continuing “educational unilateral disarmament” of the United States.

But before you rush off to volunteer in Fordham’s army, consider the following passage, from Fareed Zakaria’s Post-American World [hat tip: Edudiva]:

But even if the U.S. scores in math and science fall well below leaders like Singapore and Hong Kong, the aggregate scores hide deep regional, racial, and socioeconomic variation. [...] The difference between average science scores in poor and wealthy school districts within the United States, for instance, is four to five times greater than the difference between the U.S. and Singaporean national averages. In other words, America is a large and diverse country with a real inequality problem.

We have met the educational enemy, and he is us.

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