WSJ.com - Academic proficiency standings among 57 countries
OFHEO.gov - The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's new loan limits

Clark is glad that he doesn't have high blood pressure, because he'd be steaming right now! The California Court of Appeals has outlawed home schooling. They want parents who wish to take on the burden and challenge of teaching their kids at home to be criminalized. This is an outrageous infringement on personal liberty. The home schooling movement started in the fundamentalist Christian community, but it's since crossed over to about 2 million people of all types. Clark's concern is that as goes California, so goes the nation. Our Soviet-style monopoly school system is not succeeding, so home-schooling must not be outlawed.

How does the U.S. rank academically? A recent international test of 10th graders shows that we're sandwiched between Latvia and Lithuania in the middle of the list. Finland has the highest achieving students in the world. The Scandinavian nation doesn't have a government-mandated curriculum; every teacher must decide for him or herself what to teach. Finnish teachers are not well compensated, but people clamor for the job because they can be true entrepreneurs in the classroom. Finnish classrooms don't use modern technology and kids don't start school until age 7. We here in the U.S. have got to get out of our "one size fits all" mindset where we spend fortunes on education for no meaningful results. Think this doesn't affect you because you don't have kids? Huge amount of your taxes are still spent to support schools that are failures.

It's time for some toilet talk on The Clark Howard Show, but don't worry, we won't be getting any FCC fines! Clark has wanted to reduce the amount of water he uses at home. So he had his second low-flow toilet put into the house. He went from using 3.5 gallons/flush to 1.1 gallons/flush! Home Depot is running a special in select markets where they'll install a low-flow toilet (starting at around $100) for a $59 fee. In some places, you can get a government rebate if you outfit your home with water-efficient devices. Clark's latest toilet even has 2-buttons: One that delivers a 1.1 gallon/flush and another for 1.6 gallons/flush. Here at the radio studio, they recently installed several waterless urinals. Are you looking for other ways to cut your energy budget at home? Make sure your attic is properly insulated.

CLARKONOMICS: Clark recently heard bits of sobering news on the banking and housing fronts. First, the feds are providing $200 billion in bailout money to try to keep banks afloat. It's disturbing to Clark that banks which made bad bets are being propped up by taxpayers. Zombie banks should be allowed to fail as the marketplace dictates. But the feds are probably heeding the unwritten "too big to fail" rule. We'll have to see how it all plays out.

In our own financial lives, the equity we have in our homes is the lowest it's been since the Great Depression; it's now less than 50% for the first time ever. As part of trying to prop up the housing market, you can now borrow more from conventional sources. This means people with jumbo loans can refinance into conventional loans that may carry lower interest rates. This may affect you if you live in California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii or through the Northeast. See a complete list of the affected areas.

Finally, all the ups and downs of the market mean that there will be both winners and losers. The big winners are first-time homebuyers and some investors who can steal a deal from builders or on REO (real-estate owned) property. Some Europeans are even taking bus tours of foreclosures here in the United States. They're looking to leverage the Euro's strength against the dollar to buy properties at a fraction of their original cost. There is one caveat for the first-time homebuyer: You should put something down -- at least 5% -- in order to get a decent loan.

Personal finance writer Greg Karp has taken a new approach to the financial reporting field. Most financial writing focuses on investing. But Karp has begun writing about how to not spend. It's what you don't spend that creates the breathing space in your life. His latest book, Living Rich by Spending Smart, offers things you can do daily and monthly to save. He's gone through a basic budget and -- by changing a stop at a convenience store or what you spend on your cable bill -- found that you could come up with an extra $7,000/year. Clark likes Karp's thinking because it deals with the immediate; it's not about cutting out a cup of coffee and ending up $100,000 richer in 30 years.

Think about your own life and the changes you could make. For example, say you just can't bear to part with your useless monopoly landline; you could, however, be paying less for it. Maybe you can trim off the voicemail fee by getting an old-fashion answering machine. Think about every bill you get and what you can do to cut it. You may not come up with $7,000 at the end of the year, but you're bound to come out with something more than when you started.