USA! USA! USA!

The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).
The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).

Also just looking at universities is silly as only clever people get there. If you want to look at the general level of education then you must look at primary and secondary, in which Americans fail hard.