You guys, our education system is not that bad. Really.
When comparing our education system to others, you have to realize that a lot of other countries have educational systems that are set up in completely different ways. Some European countries have systems where their equivalent of "high school" lasts until you're in your early 20s. In that case, if you were to compare students in their last year of "high school," you'd be comparing statistics between an 18-year-old and a 22-year-old -- well obviously their numbers are going to be quite a bit higher than ours. Other countries, like Germany, divide their kids into a apprenticeship/trade school track (usually for those whose test scores, etc. are lower) and a university track around age 14 or 15, I think, so when we're comparing numbers with them, we're only comparing with the ones who are in the university (usually the higher test scores) track.
Of course we're never going to be able to compete with the Japanese, education-wise, but considering that they're in school for, like, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, who would want to?
For the situation that the U.S. education system is put in -- it must provide education to EVERYONE up to age 16, relatively low funding, and in addition to teaching, school officials must also serve as surrogate parents, a counseling service, health care providers, and ocassionally police officers -- it's doing a pretty decent job.