I went to U.S. public schools up til grad school, but the thing was... I learned far more at home. I learned to read at home before I got to the public schools, my dad gave me math books and programming books to learn from at home... and there ain't nothing any statist could have done to stop that. Heck, my parents used to let me hang out in the library for hours at a time on the weekends; I just sat in the nonfiction section and read all the science stuff I could get my hands on. For all these people's Harrison Bergeron dreams, they can't keep those who value education down. What they can do is pull down the marginal and mediocre students who will not get such encouragement at home. Every conscious effort to "narrow the gap" by pulling the top down blows up in these people's faces.