Two leaders in the European home education movement, a father from Sweden and a German mother, drew tears from the audience as they told a packed conference room about life in exile and the heart-rending decision to flee abroad. While each of their stories was unique, both parents were forced to escape from their homelands due to relentless government persecution when they refused to stop homeschooling.

Everyone knows the US education system is broken, but why? And what can be done to possibly fix it?

Teacher knows best? That doesn't appear to be the case for one teacher who called a future Nobel Prize winner's dreams of becoming a scientist "quite ridiculous" in a scathing report card. John Gurdon's future success was almost nipped in the bud in 1949 when a schoolmaster at elite Eton College wrote on his report card that pursuing science would be a waste of time.

The average voter in this country cannot think critically. Obama supporters are asked if Obama should've been able to use his teleprompter in the last debate.

From the "when all else fails, lower your standards" department: Average reading and writing SAT scores for high school students declined to their lowest levels (dropping 1 point to 496, while math remained the same at 514). The article does note that more lower-income students with less access to high-quality education are taking the test, possibly providing an explanation for the lower test scores.