Why Can't (uncle) Sammy Learn?

RealClearPolitics - Why Can't Uncle Sam Learn?

In 1983, three years after Jimmy Carter paid his debt to teachers' unions by creating the Education Department, a national commission declared America "a nation at risk": "If an unfriendly power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war." So in 1984, Ronald Reagan decreed improvements.

They did not materialize, so in 1994 Congress decreed that by 2000 the high school graduation rate would be "at least" 90 percent and students would be "first in the world in mathematics and science achievement." Even inflated by "social promotions," the graduation rate in 2000 was about 75 percent (it peaked at 77.1 in 1969), and among 38 nations surveyed, Americans ranked 19th in mathematics, just below Latvians, and 18th in science, just below Bulgarians.

How shocking. Our education system is nearly all government run, yet our test scores continue to get worse and worse. How can that be? We are about to turn our medical system over to the government, yet our education is already firmly in government hands and it is an expensive shambles.

Why can't the Government and the American people learn?:

1. The MSM refuses to repetitively report the facts on the issue
2. We really don't want to believe that we have thrown our money down a hole while giving our children a worse and worse education, squandering our once enviable position in world education to union kickbacks and ideological foolishness.