[catz]

> I'd also point out that Japan and South Korea also have an extremely competitive and intensive educational

Just a few interesting stuff (partially relevant to the discussion).

The Russian Federation has a higher average performance in mathematics than the USA (TIMMS study 2007 on Grade 4 and 8 - it is available here: http://timss.bc.edu/TIMSS2007/mathreport.html). This is interesting since the USA would probably have more money to spend on education (since it is a lot more affluent). Hungary also have a higher standard than the USA at grade 8.

It would be interesting to see what these poorer countries do to get their educational standard above that of the USA.