"The country ranks 14th—below Russia and other developed nations—in a Pearson study on global math, science, reading, literacy and graduation rates. One reason

"The country ranks 14th—below Russia and other developed nations—in a Pearson study on global math, science, reading, literacy and graduation rates. One reason for that is a lack of funding for public schools, something Ventilla's hot tech startup no longer needs to worry about." I don't know the details, but does Russia have better funded schools than the US? Or what does the author try to say by highlighting Russia as being better than the US at education?