Okay, I’ve skimmed through the OECD report – it’s 456 pages and it’s not even close to being interesting enough to compel a close read – and the data relevant to the points raised by Jamie’s presumably evil stalking horse are as follows:
Primary education, $ per student
USA: $7,560
AUS: $5,052
AVG: $4,819
Secondary education, $ per student
USA: $8,779
AUS: $7,239
AVG: $6,688
Tertiary education, $ per student
USA: $22,234
AUS: $12,688
AVG: $12,319
Only Denmark spent more on primary education, only Switzerland and Luxembourg spent more on secondary education, and no one else was even close on tertiary education.
In terms of literacy, 39 percent of the USA’s 15-year olds performed at level 2 or below, while only 31 percent of Australia’s did so. Level 2 was defined as being “capable of basic reading tasks” but being incapable of “locating multiple pieces of information” and “drawing links between different parts of the texts”.
Source: Education at a Glance, OECD Indicators 2004