I agree with all of your points of view in your post. While I agree with killara that Americans should emphasis education, especially in math and science areas. However, that might not have much to do with "partisan politics" as you pointed out
Being a mother of a university student. I think the public education system in U.S. is not that shabby at all (that also depends on the school district), even there are many rooms to improve in math and science teaching for the elementary level.