About USA

American public education is operated by state and local governments, regulated by the United States Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants. In most states, children are required to attend school from the age of six or seven (generally, kindergarten or first grade) until they turn 18 (generally bringing them through twelfth grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at 16 or 17.[567]

About 12% of children are enrolled in parochial or nonsectarian private schools. Just over 2% of children are homeschooled.[568] The U.S. spends more on education per student than any nation in the world, spending more than $11,000 per elementary student in 2010 and more than $12,000 per high school student.[569] Some 80% of U.S. college students attend public universities.[570]

The United States has many competitive private and public institutions of higher education. The majority of the world's top universities listed by different ranking organizations are in the U.S.[571][572][573] There are also local community colleges with generally more open admission policies, shorter academic programs, and lower tuition. Of Americans 25 and older, 84.6% graduated from high school, 52.6% attended some college, 27.2% earned a bachelor's degree, and 9.6% earned graduate degrees.[574] The basic literacy rate is approximately 99%.[224][575] The United Nations assigns the United States an Education Index of 0.97, tying it for 12th in the world.[576]

As for public expenditures on higher education, the U.S. trails some other OECD nations but spends more per student than the OECD average, and more than all nations in combined public and private spending.[569][577] As of 2012, student loan debt exceeded one trillion dollars, more than Americans owe on credit cards.