Forty years ago today, the United States won the Space Race. Three brave Americans traveled a quarter-million miles to the Moon. Neal Armstrong and ‘Buzz’ Aldrin walked on the moon’s surface while Michael Collins orbited sixty miles above.

When President Kennedy made the speech in 1961 that set the space race in motion, none – or very little - of what was needed was even in existence. It all had to be envisioned by engineers and scientists, then it had to be created: A booster strong enough to break the bonds of Earth’s gravity; a spaceship that would land on the Moon – and blast off again; the docking technology to transfer astronauts between the Earth-based craft and one that would fly in outer space only; space suits that would keep the astronauts alive and comfortable in the Moon’s extreme temperatures. The list goes on and on.

Yet, just eight years after JFK’s challenge, the U.S. was able to produce the Apollo spacecraft and fly it to a precise point in space – within sixty miles of where the Moon would be at the end of a three-day journey. Too close and they would likely crash; too far and the ship would skip past the Moon and into eternity.

All this had to be calculated - without computers of any significance compared to today’s scientific calculators. The spacecraft itself had a computer so primitive as to be unworthy of mention. Picture traveling to the Moon with the timer off your microwave.  That’s about all it did.

Of course, they had no idea how far computers would progress in forty years and, make no mistake, the space program drove much of that progress. They simply made do with what they had. But the point is that they were successful.

Fast forward to today. The U.S. lags behind the world in math and science education. Most big cities have about a 50% graduation rate from their public schools. Many universities, including the one where my degree was earned, have remedial classes in math because many of the students they accept are not prepared for college-level work. One has to wonder what the ones not accepted (or not applying) to attend college are prepared for.

This can’t be acceptable if the U.S. is to remain a power player on the world stage. Politicians pay plenty of lip service to education, but the bottom line is always the same: give us more money.

Spending on education has ballooned over the last four decades, while performance has not improved. It’s time for two reforms: accountability and school choice. A school system that graduates half its students in four years is obviously doing things incorrectly. Get rid of underperforming teachers and administrators. Our children’s and our nation’s future is more important than their misguided career choice. While the above will take some period of time, children can’t be wasting their time in underperforming schools. Let parents use their school tax funds to send their kids to any school – public or private. That money belongs – or should belong – to the child, not to the district in which the family happens to live.

Only then might the U.S. get out of the “gimme gimme” funk that it’s in and return to the can-do days when we found a way to get three brave men to the Moon.