More concerned with diversity and safe spaces - the students are revolting

You bet they are - whatever happened to the three R's - Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmitic? From US News and World Report:

Internationally, U.S. Students Are Falling
American students have a math problem.

The latest global snapshot of student performance shows declining math scores in the U.S. and stagnant performance in science and reading.

"We're losing ground — a troubling prospect when, in today's knowledge-based economy, the best jobs can go anywhere in the world," said Education Secretary John B. King Jr. "Students in Massachusetts, Maryland, and Minnesota aren't just vying for great jobs along with their neighbors or across state lines, they must be competitive with peers in Finland, Germany, and Japan."

Math was a stubborn concern. "This pattern that we're seeing in mathematics seems to be consistent with what we've seen in previous assessments ... everything is just going down," said Peggy Carr, acting commissioner at the National Center for Education Statistics.

Some numbers:

The test is based on a 1,000-point scale. Among the findings:

• • In math, the U.S. average score was 470, below the international average of 490. Average scores ranged from 564 in Singapore to 328 in the Dominican Republic.
  • In science, the U.S. average score was 496, about the same as the international average of 493. Average scores ranged from 556 in Singapore to 332 in the Dominican Republic.
  • In reading, the U.S. average score was 497, around the same as the international average of 493. Average scores ranged from 535 in Singapore to 347 in Lebanon.

Being average is for wussies - we need to be exceptional. It is not just Singapore that is cleaning our clock - China, Japan, Finland, Canada, Australia, England, Estonia, Germany... All these nations are significantly ahead of us in terms of quality of education. The PISA Test website can be found here: Programme for International Student Assessment

I have two items to offer, one quote and one chart:

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.
--Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

And this from this report (page 2) at CATO Institute: