1)  It is not thrown equally at all.  Most, if not all, public schools are funded with property tax.  Ergo, wealthier districts have good schools.
2) I have yet to figure out how valid those international rankings are.  Nowhere have I ever read the means of comparison.  What test(s) or other criteria are used?
3)  If a test is used, who in our country and who in each of the other countries take said test?  I have never seen any person, be he/she a reporter, feature writer, or woman/man on the street explain how one can compare a USA secondary student with a secondary student in western Europe where the students there are already specializing in their chosen field of study, some as early as our Junior year of high school and where the non-college bound are out of the regular program by about the same time.
4) Re: "Education colleges"  Where do they exist anymore?  Did you ever ask a teacher in a successful school which courses helped him/her the most?  Did any legislator do so?