Sunday, October 26, 2014

Declining Education

Nicholas Kristof devotes today's column to an analysis of an OECD study of education around the world. While the title of the report is Education at a Glance 2014, the report is over 500 pages long. Nonetheless it has some interesting charts. Unlike years ago, we are not at the top of any chart.

One of the most interesting charts to me is A1.2. It categorizes secondary school education into general orientation, vocational orientation and no distinction by orientation. We rate twelfth but have no distinction by orientation. A good deal of our problem is the inequality that has become a definition of the U.S. today. Rich areas have better schools.

We are also weak in the number of 3-year-olds being educated. Other OECD countries educate an average of 70 percent of their 3-year-olds; we educate 38 percent. Our teachers work longer hours than most but make less money compared to other college-educated workers.

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