It is not easy to agree often with Zakaria, but there are times he and CNN call it correctly. The quoted reports are nothing new, and neither is the usual dismissive answers and reactions in the US. The long term implication is that our failing educational system has created and will continue to create a small elite, a shrinking REAL middle class, and a huge lower class of untrained, under-educated, and quasi-illiterate inhabitants. The price we pay for having remained stagnant in a world that has progressed rapidly. But we still have our extreme high self-esteem and those rosy lenses.
Here we go:
>>>The picture of the United States is deeply troubling. Despite having the second-highest per capita GDP, the country does poorly along almost every dimension. It is below average in literacy and technological proficiency, and it’s third from the bottom in numeracy for 16- to 65-year-olds. Interestingly, France, Piketty’s country, also fares poorly in most categories.
Inequalities of skills are also becoming generational and entrenched. The United States had a wide gap between its best performers and worst performers — though it had a smaller percentage in the top range compared with countries such as Japan, Finland and the Netherlands. And it had the widest gap in scores between people with rich, educated parents and poor, undereducated parents.
The United States has high levels of education and a large percentage of its workers in adult learning and training programs, and it spends lots of money on all these activities. And yet, it does worse than many countries with few advantages and resources. (And no, it isn’t just because of immigrants. About half of the OECD countries now have a larger percentage of foreign-born adults than does the United States)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fareed-zakaria-americas-educational-failings/2014/05/01/b61eaa22-d15c-11e3-9e25-188ebe1fa93b_story.html <<<
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