More bad news for U.S. education

Despite spending more per student per year on education than any other country but Switzerland, the U.S. (at $11,152 per student vs. Switzerland's $11,334) is losing ground: it ranks seventh (tied with Belgium) among industrialized nations in the percentage of people aged 25 to 34 who hold a college degree. Twenty years ago, the U.S. ranked first.

That's one finding of a study conducted by the 30-nation, Paris-based Organization for Cooperation and Development, as reported in the Boston Globe. The study also found that 15-year-olds in the U.S., compared with their peers elsewhere, are below average in applying math skills to real-life tasks.

The Globe article quotes Barry McGaw, the organization's director of education, as saying that the U.S. remains atop the "knowledge economy," but he adds that education's contribution is weakening, and the U.S. "ought to be worrying."