Future Not So Bright

Compared to students in other advanced democracies, American students rank near the bottom in their science, math and literacy scores. And according to the Winter 2003 issue of Hoover Digest, these scores get worse with each passing generation.

In an International Adult Literacy Survey given to a group of adults aged 16 to 65, Americans educated in the 1950s ranked second place compared with other students. Those schooled in the ’60s held third place, while those with a ’70s education fell to fifth. But those educated in the ’90s rolled in at 14th place.

On the International Test of Mathematics and Science Study, 17-year-old American students’ scores ranked only above those in several developing countries.

This, despite the U.S. leading the way in educational spending at $10,240 per student from elementary to secondary education (2000 figures, according to an annual review by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). Says Jack Jennings, director of the Center on Education Policy, “You can’t just put dollars in one column and test scores in another column.”

Hoover had another interesting take on the relationship between money and education: “Economists tell us that human capital is more important than physical capital for long-term economic development. Weak educational systems won’t ruin the country overnight, but prolonged incompetence will eventually prove consequential.”