Recent analyses by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development establish that U.S. schools are the least efficient in the industrialized world. The studies compare gains made by students ages nine to 14 across many nations.

• On average, U.S. students make just 78 percent of the year-to-year progress in reading made by students in 17 OECD countries.

• In math, U.S. students between the fourth and eighth grades made less progress than their peers in the 17 countries -- gaining only 73 percent as much ground as students in those countries.

• In science, U.S. progress ranked second to last -- with 78 percent of the average gains of the foreign students.

• Yet, OECD data show U.S. school expenditures to be third highest of 22 countries -- lagging behind only Switzerland and Austria.

At $5,300 per student, U.S. primary schools spent 75 percent more than the international average of $3,033. And U.S. secondary schools spent 54 percent more money than the international average.