US Education: falling behind?

According to Newsmax, Nations such as Korea, Norway, the Czech Republic and Japan have had faster growth in high school completion, and have passed the United States on the way up the rankings. It seems that for the past years our education is falling behind. But is it the youth's fault or the school system. I feel its the school system, recently I saw a documentary named "Waiting for Superman".  It talks about how a children going to a private school rather then public schools.  In the documentary they mention that if a young child is attending a bad school, and the child knows he wont do as good. They say its a mentally think but I think its the educationa system.  If the parents pay a lot of money to put a child in a private place, then their education is super. But its not fair that if a smart child has parents that cant afford a private school, the child is stuck in a "bad public school". Then because of this he wont be as good as he would be if he was put in a private school.  I feel that the U.S should re organize the school teaching standarts ask more of the child and by doing this it will improve the system.