We spend 2X on education than Europe and look at our results.But suddenly it is taboo to question this spending, we demand more, more, MORE for education, yet the Democrats will conveniently pull out the "America spends 2X on healthcare as Europeans and we are failing!" as a policy point. Also it is irrelevant to compare Europe and America in many regards, generally in most European countries they recognize by a child's 8-10th year in school which ones are dodos and which ones are gifted, the dodos are shipped off to vocational schools to learn a trade instead of book smarts while in America we focus on trying to make every child pass a liberal arts high school degree and because if this we get drop outs and C students which effect our statistics. Also for how "public" the schools are in Europe they are alot more like private schools with an emphasis on competition, every parent wants to get their child into the best school they can, an example being the Gymnasiums in Germany, in America you just go to whatever school is closest to your house.