Mike Patton

America is a nation its people are proud of. Those people think it is the best at everything. In the last couple of decades, however, the United States has witnessed itself slide backwards in the areas of equality, prosperity, and education. Many would ask how the U.S. could possibly be failing to educate its students. The U.S. spends more money per student than any other developed nation. Yet American high school students have posted average to subpar performances in math and science testing…

son," he said, smiling. Which really meant, "That's all I'm going to tell you," or "I don't know the answer, so don't embarrass me." A Partnership Is Formed The next morning, I told my best friend, Mike, what my dad had said. As best I could tell, Mike and I were the only poor kids in this school. Mike was like me in that he was in this school by a twist of fate. Someone had drawn a jog in the line for the school district, and we wound up in school with the rich kids. We weren't really poor, but…