30 years ago, Finland’s education system was in the toilet, but today the country is constantly ranked in the top 5 systems in the world.

Even so, the country that The Atlantic is calling an “educational superpower” isn’t academically respected by most western scholars today.

When Pasi Sahlberg, the director of the Finnish Ministry of Education, went to New York to be interviewed and lecture at Dwight School (which is ironically a private high school) late last year he had trouble answering questions from the New York Times reporter.

As the Young Turks explain in this video, the concept of eliminating private schools and competition from the education system is enough to make most “heads explode” here in the states.