Of education spending and education results

Recently, over at Capitol Report New Mexico, Rob noted that education spending in New Mexico is 25th among the states while our results are near (or at) the bottom.

But what about the United States as a whole? Check out the following slide which is directly from the Organization for Economic Coordination and Development (OECD)

The United States spends more per-pupil than any other nation in the world, but our results….not so great:

We know that choice and competition work in all other areas of the economy, particularly the innovative high-tech sector where Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and others compete fiercely. Why can’t that process be allowed work in education as well?