[Retric]

Comparing countries by PPP doesn’t account for the cost of education between countries. A collage educated worker in Mexico is much cheaper than a collage educated worker in Luxembourg even accounting for PPP.

In fact if you compare countries by Median household income PPP. You find a familiar ordering, Luxembourg 52,493, Norway 51,489, Sweden 50,514, Australia 46,555, Denmark 44,360, United States 43,585. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income

Differences in scope between each country such as what pays for school lunch programs explains much of the difference.

[flavius29663]

But still, there isn't a lack of funding in the US, not when you compare it with every other developed country. Switzerland is not a cheaper country than the US, far from that. Still, being a teacher there is a highly respected profession, and a high school teacher can make 7-8000 per month (last time I spoke with a Swiss). They still pay less per student than the US.

If you ask me, I'm going to guess that building large football practice fields with nigh lighting, driving buses on all the hills twice a day, paying 200k to non-teachers, these things all add up.