Stupid in America: Why your kids are probably dumber than Belgians

Reason: Stupid in America: Why your kids are probably dumber than Belgians:

This started out being a report on how Belgian kids crushed American kids in an international comparison.

For 'Stupid in America,' a special report ABC will air Friday, we gave identical tests to high school students in New Jersey and in Belgium. The Belgian kids cleaned the American kids' clocks. The Belgian kids called the American students 'stupid.'

Then it changes tack a bit:

In New York City, it's "just about impossible" to fire a bad teacher, says schools chancellor Joel Klein. The new union contract offers slight relief, but it's still about 200 pages of bureaucracy. "We tolerate mediocrity," said Klein, because "people get paid the same, whether they're outstanding, average, or way below average." One teacher sent sexually oriented emails to "Cutie 101," his sixteen year old student. Klein couldn't fire him for years, "He hasn't taught, but we have had to pay him, because that's what's required under the contract."

It doesn't move off the idea very quickly:

The U.S. Postal Service couldn't get it there overnight. But once others were allowed to compete, Federal Express, United Parcel, and others suddenly could get it there overnight. Now even the post office does it (sometimes). Competition inspires people to do what we didn't think we could do.

It seems that Mr Stossel wanted to talk about Education, and he does taste the problem again later, but the heart of the matter seems to be that Unionized Monopoly is the cause of the poor school system, and he latches onto that idea rather well.

And, of course, I completely agree. Unions exist to have as many of their members working for as much money as possible - be it payment in benefits, concessions or straight money - and Unions do not exist to encourage quality work.

Apparently the Belgian school system figured this out, but, considering they're smarter in Belgium anyway I'm not so surprised.

The sooner we figure this out for essential services - hospitals and transportation - the sooner we all benefit from improved products and services where it matters most.