why US sounds so suspiciously like the jealous mother of a school child who compares tabs with her child's friends?

Obama in his state of the union adress said he wants to "win the future" by out-innovating, out-educating and out-building the rest of the world. "If we want to win the future -– if we want innovation to produce jobs in America and not overseas -– then we also have to win the race to educate our kids,” he said.

now this what i will call educational protectionism and its a wrong way of thinking... this are the reasons why i think so

1)the often heard american view recently is China and India “started educating their children earlier and longer, with greater emphasis on math and science;”..now thats a mis representation of actual ground situation..its not that these nations have improved thier educational systems, its just that now more people are accessing education..and when close to half of humanity lives in this two nations it becomes a huge number

2)“the quality of US math and science education lags behind many other nations" is another argument...well the problem is how do u measure this quality? If its the international tests that they are quoting, then the American students performance on international tests have been pretty bad for a long time,(from 1960's) and believe it or not, has got better in recent years.

3)"Race to the Top is the most meaningful reform of public education in a generation"..again this idea is based on the tests and ratings...lets just call it as we see it...Race to the Top is about killing ideas and forcing students to memorize equations by imposing common standards and testing in only two subjects on students all over the nation; by forcing schools and teachers to teach to the tests; .... perhaps this explains why American students who scored poorly on tests but have been able to build a strong economy with innovations.

4)“America has fallen to ninth in the proportion of young people with a college degree”..so what?..does that means more populous countries in the world shuldnt have graduates..last time i checked neither was US the most populous nation nor was graduation was a basic necesiity for succes in life

so let me conclude with two remarks...

one, education is not a zero sum game..its doesnt mean if some one else is gaining knowledge that some one else has to loose it..its an add on game ..more , the merrier...

two, educational protectionism or radical changing of educational route plan is not warrented on basis of changes caused by better access to educational options around the world

so the way for US is to keep its door opened as before for all the top brains in world to access the advanced academic & research oppurtunities that it can provide due to its economic developement