What happened here? Two things: the U.S. curriculum has been “dumbed down,” and schools have become responsible for teaching everything from health to consumer affairs. The report recommends sweeping changes beginning with requiring at least 5.5 hours of core academic instruction each day. As for the nonacademic classes, says study chairman and education reformer John Hodge Jones, schools “should keep their doors open longer each day and longer each year.”
Presidents Bush and Clinton pledged that U.S. students would be first in the world in science and math by the year 2000. But German, French and Japanese high-school students spend twice as much time in academic classes. Time is not on our side.
TOTAL HOURS REQUIRED (ESTIMATED) Germany 3,528 France 3,280 Japan 3,170 U.S. 1,460
