There is a lot of stuff far more important than guns.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Standards are understood to be MINIMUM standards. Any school board or state can increase their standards. No one advocates lowering standards.

The fact remains that we cannot provide a World Class education to our children without some sort of basic standards.

[Plane]

Standards are understood to be MINIMUM standards. Any school board or state can increase their standards. No one advocates lowering standards.

The fact remains that we cannot provide a World Class education to our children without some sort of basic standards.

You have half the picture there.

Where do you put the minimum and why bother the half of the nation that is already above the middle?

[Xavier_Onassis]

The US needs to raise its standards more than a bit for the average to be world class. At present there are no standards. In the same state, one school district might spend three times more than another, and have three times as many students reading below grade level.

If the standards were up to world class, then there would be no reason to "bother" those above the median, as they would already be producing graduates that had complied with the minimum or better.
 
You are playing silly word games here.

The fact is that most American schools are far from being able to yell "We're number one!" and wave their giant rubber fingers.

The difficult part is testing to assure the standards have been met. Multiple choice exams are the usual way, but they are far from being adequate.

[Plane]

  We are tops at baseball and a type of football that most of the world ignores.

    I wish that achievement in engineering or art produced the same adulation as the big sports .

     Getting everyone to care would do more for the problem than handing more control to the government.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The rest of the world does not care about American football. Baseball is popular in Japan and some Caribbean countries, but all sports are recreation. Professional football and basketball are spectator sports in which freakishly tall and huge men are the only ones who excel. Baseball is less for the freakish, and only 2/3rds as boring as cricket.

I also wish that people admired originality and creativity in art, architecture and science more than they do in sports. Sports are simply an amusement for those who watch. They are mediocre to good exercise to those who play. Football is as damaging to play as it is beneficial. I would rather watch an architect or artist work than any game played with a ball. Watching a mechanic rebuild an engine is also more amusing for me. And there are never commercials, which I loathe.