Oh, that is just.... absolutely hilarious!!!

"Society will develop a new kind of servitude which covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate. It does not tyrannise but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."
― Alexis de Tocqueville

A statist is an individual who erroneously believes that there is such a thing as "authority" vested in certain human beings magically giving them the "right to rule" over other people. This "authority" means that certain people who we call "government", have the "moral right" to issue commands to those whom they rule (those under their "jurisdiction"), and that their "subjects" (slaves) have a "moral obligation" to obey the arbitrary dictates set by their masters. Most simply put, a statist is someone who believes in the legitimacy of slavery.

Nothing more readily exemplifies this principle than the modern united States system of education. We surrender our next generation, the whole future to the "government". But when the result is as should be expected, the masses whale at the unfairness of receiving that which they asked for.

Wish I had a bit more time to give a full opinion on this. The shortened version of an answer to the OP the that schools are holding down those that are succeeding to allow those that are struggling to catch up.

Yes, that is what is meant by teaching to "the lowest common denominator". The level of achievement is reduced again and again to the point where all students are expected to pass. This concept leaves even the average student untasked and the better students bored.

Some East Asian systems have high standards for everyone. If you can't cut the mustard you get shifted to a trade school. Discipline is taught and expected. South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong are the four highest rated school achievement countries.

High standards, I'd love to see an explanation for that. Three out of four are the good little puppet states. But Hong Kong should never be in your little group for reasons it seems not understood.

That is correct. You do not understand.

"Hong Kong emerged as a world educational leader on recent international assessments – a feat that is all the more impressive considering that Hong Kong has essentially rebuilt its education system since 1997, the year Hong Kong was returned to China after a century and a half of British rule. Hong Kong outperformed almost every other nation in the 2009 PISA assessment, bested only by neighbors Shanghai and Korea and the perennially top-performing Finland. Hong Kong’s students ranked fourth in reading and third in both math and science."

Not correct, the misunderstanding is not in this direction.

Seems the whole presentment has something to do with that statist outlook on life. Shows that when one depends on the government in order to develop any concept of an opinion, those opinions mean less than nothing. Doesn't NASA have some data on this?

"Government is nothing but men acting in concert. The morality and value of government, like any other association of men, will be no greater and no less than the morality and value of the men comprising it. Since government is nothing but men, its inherent 'authority' to act is in no way greater or different than the 'authority' to act of individuals in isolation. Government has no 'magic powers' or 'authority' not possessed by private individuals. Let he who asserts that government may do that which the individual may not assume the onus of proof and demonstrate his contention." - Chris Lyspooner

And even the most destitute idiot while in doubt about much of life, has no doubt whatsoever about the morality and value of that thing many call "government". So before you go and try to place blame, I would suggest you better understand your sources.