In December of 2004 the results of the PISA study 2003 were published. It was conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which tested 15-year old students from 39 countries. U.S. students’ math skills had dropped from #19 in 2000 to #28 in 2003. Now, U.S. students’ math skills are listed as significantly below the OECD average. With the usual exceptions (NY Times, CSMonitor, Business Investor’s Daily) not much was reported about this devastating result, which may or may not be due to the fact, that U.S. children actually scored better before NCLB was signed into law.

Given the facts that the IT-industry is the only one which forecasts a 100% job-growth, that outsourcing is already a major problem for the U.S., and that mathematics is THE most important subject to prepare students for any career in the IT industry, this PISA study result is a devastating problem. U.S. students were outscored by students from 27 countries including Poland, Hungary, and Latvia, and not only the usual top scorers from Asian countries. Rod Paige called this situation a “blinking red lightâ€�, I think it presents a dangerous situation for the future of the country (If in the future more well-paying jobs will get outsourced, whose taxes will pay for … whatever?). Personally, I believe that these famous funds should have been used for a publicity campaign informing U.S. parents that they will have to engage into their children’s math education or their children might not be able to get a well-paying job in the future.