When Canada multiplies its population by 10 and has more than a couple of big cities, we can make more comparisons other than the fact that Canada has a 90% HS graduation rate, and the US has an 85% graduation rate, and that Canada has 21 Nobel prizes, and the USA has 338, and that we both have locally run education.

I was in the new All Volunteer, race riot, drug addict US Army in the 1970s. The number of soldiers that simply could not read was astounding. I used to read Penthouse Letters to a bunch of guys, simply because they couldn't do it themselves. At least that part of our society has improved.

Michael, We can't copy other industrialized nations, particularly if we don't use standardized testing. Other industrialized countries in Europe and Asia TRACK their students academically. We stopped doing that years ago, with disastrous results, mainly because we had too many brown faces in shop class, and too many…