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).

From the same site again:

"The AIP report also found that foreign students made up a smaller fraction of the total first-year graduate student enrollment in 2004. The percentage of first-year students from outside the United States declined from a peak of 55% in the 2000-2001 academic year to about 43% in fall 2004."