Thanks for posting these figures. They indicate a real breakdown in the culture. Education is neither valued in itself nor pursued as a means to an end (a better standard of living). America continues eating its seed corn and lives off past glories...while immigration and the brain drain is actually starting to reverse. But I have one slight disagreement with your final sentence.

You asked, "How can we possibly hope to preserve the American middle class in the face of such educational performance?".

I would reply that a lower GDP or a decline relative to other countries could take one of two forms. We could become like Brazil, with vast differences in wealth, education, and opportunity. Or we could become like Hungary or Finland, with a lower average GDP but with wealth, education, and opportunity more equally distributed.

Observing the politics of the past 25 years, I am afraid we are inclined to go the Brazil route. Oh, and incidentally, the reason why such mediocre results (at beat) in education are tolerated is because the affluent don't have to compete on a level playing field. As with taxation and budgets, the rich are prepared to sacrifice the nation as long as they personally come out ahead.