We have a European-style public education system for K-12, and it delivers European-style mediocre results.
http://www.businessinsider.com...
Oh yeah, you're the chap who seems to come here to randomly hate on Europe for no discernable reasons. By the way: simply hating on another country or region you have nothing to do with doesn't actually have any bearing on your own problems. If Europe is bad as you claim, then that neither excuses the US nor does it make it more acceptable.
Also, you're flat out wrong: much of Europe comes above the US.
Well, not to invalidate your point that Euro-bashing is not a useful endeavor, but the US as a whole shouldn't be compared to the best performing areas of Europe, just as Europe as a whole shouldn't be compared to the best-performing areas of the US. European education systems are not centralized, just as the education systems in the US are not. Each state is essentially responsible for the education of their own population, with some (seemingly token, in some cases) federal guidance and oversight.
This is why this particular study is interesting, because it compares the individual US states to the individual European (and worldwide) countries. These comparisons are useful.
However, the headline and summary are rather sensational. The "deep south" states referred to are the usual suspects: Louisiana, West Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi. These particular states have pervasive problems impacting educational performance. They are somewhat economically depressed in general, and put very little emphasis on education. They also suffer from dramatic residential and educational economic segregation. The very poor in these states essentially all have their own schools, with minimal funding, that are little more than K-12 daycare centers, while the rich (and/or middle class) have their own schools which perform significantly better. If you look at specific school districts in metropolitan areas, you will notice peculiar boundaries in some cases, akin to gerrymandering. Also, rural areas in these states often have terrible educational performance, correlating with the abject poverty common in large swaths of these states.