Q: Why does America, one of the greatest countries in the world, have one of the worst education systems in the world?

The root problem as I see it is that the American education system was established to teach its citizens and those immigrants coming in ;to read, write, and do simple math; in order to have better workers for the coming industrial age as foreseen by wealthy ruling class. To this date our system, at its core is to create consumers to feed the our capitalistic machine.

Because the Goverment finds it easer to control us if we are dumbed down and can't think for ourselves

Government at all levels (federal, state, local) spend, on average, in excess of $8,000 PER CHILD PER YEAR on public education in the United States. So, its not a money problem.

In reality, it is a competition problem. The government has a quasi-monopoly on public education in this country. I think that parents - not government bureaucrats - should make the educational decisions for their children.

Allowing free and open competition in the education services would be a great start.

Because our values color how we define "great ". Imho, ANY nation on this
Earth, which truely is great according to humanistic values, would be too busy
taking action in taking care of it's people. Especialy for this child pictured at
her school classrom blackboard, because she & her peers are this country's
future. But the values of the parasitical institutions dominating the USA aren't
interested in supporting her future. They're interested in collecting as much as
they can grab for themselves. Bill McKibben's book " Deep Economy "
described the basis for the serious economic problems the USA is afflicted
with. Being he's a Sunday school teacher first and an economist second, he
explained his views on the sinking of America. Before, people were compelled
to depend on one another in a community.It doubled the value of every dollar
they earned by spending it localy to promote the " commonwealth " Work came
first by necessity. But good parents always wanted a better life for their children,
so they instituted a public school system, with private schooling for those with
more means. What built up the USA throughout it's History are these community
values. And they enabled people to improve their lives, as they would anywhere.
But beyond a certain point of personal financial security, people began to aim
at achieving hyperindividualism, selfishness, and isolationism. It came with the
rise of Corporations in the 20th century, as been proliferated by Corporate TV.
The conspicuous consumption comercialy advertised on TV is a perpetual
motion money machine for the Corporations, and a treadmill for citizens. So
people withdraw into games, became occupied with accumulating more objects,
and have lost intetrest in promoting a community standard of essential eduction.
You can see it in the curriculum that kids are subjected to. To have savvy adults
who will be civic minded enough to nominate the right people, vote to elect those
people, represent us in taxing fairly & spending our money by investing it wisely..
We'd need to teach economics throughout elementary & high school. Ditto for
Logic & syllogisms, the Constitution & laws. Then we'd all be motivated to help others.

Xbox360 & PS3.

its due to lack of consequences for teachers.once in the system they cant be fired.
some people are just not teachers.also the system doesnt provide for creativity or limits
the ability of teachers to change the system.

How about these points.
I think California might have taken the lead on the destruction of education. Prop 13 removed the funding scheme for schools and at the same time removed local control of schooling because you couldn't pay for it.

American corporations decided that they could make money on this. just look at California the regents, the tuitions. And look what happened they made money, the quality and the numbers of students produced went down.

Bad education means cheap labour??? I don't think so, if you had a well educated population they probably would be efficient and still need to do the jobs that need to be done, like garbage collection, bus drivers, cleaning toilets.

When will America get its head around the basic fact that labour is honourable and the smarter everyone is the better things will work.
The jobs need to be done and a job well done should be honoured.

I was on the last batch through before Prop 13 wreaked its devastation, forty years ago, it wasn't perfect but it was damn site better than now.

Hire more teachers, pay them more, train them. it is an investment in your future,

But damn I forgot, the guys making the decisions think that the rapture is tomorrow and even if it isn't they will die before any benefit comes back.

After me the deluge,

Coz people stopped caring..

Why? Because the right-wing wants more cheap slave labor as well as a plentiful supply of canon fodder for the wars it is planning.

..."I doubt whether one million teachers will show up to march and ruin their fabulous 2 month summer vacation."

That is a terribly inaccurate assessment. There are plenty of teachers who pour everything they have into their teaching. Granted, there are those who are simply waiting to retire, but in my experience they are the minority.

We've allowed our education system to be unimportant. From parents, to the government and everywhere in between. We do not care and this is the result.

Because we care more about the Teacher's Union than we do the children.