Since 1981, God's World News has been helping children to understand and interpret the world around them. By Cal Thomas Jay Leno knows how uninformed people are. Ratifying the findings of a comedian is the latest in a long list of academic studies that finds American public-school students at or near the bottom in critical areas such as math, science, and general knowledge. No Asian country participated in the 12th-grade survey, which is probably good because the United States would likely have scored even lower given the high performance of Asian students. It is an ossified government monopoly that functions largely for the benefit of its employees and interest groups rather than that of children and taxpayers.
American education needs a radical overhaul.
Mr. Finn recommends re-empowering parents, and that begins with giving them the choice and money to send their children to the schools they believe will provide the best education. When public education began, it had the egalitarian objective of supplying a social and intellectual melting pot that would ensure an equal education for everyone. It has succeeded in providing an equally bad education for too many. Competition would raise all intellectual boats. It works in every other area of life.