To be honest, it wouldn’t be much of an ‘argument’ – it’s quite plain; there is around 95% of the gravity observed at the surface of the earth, active at the orbital height of the ISS. ‘Zero-Gravity’, ‘microgravity’, etc are all misnomers – of course there is gravity, and it certainly isn’t ‘micro’ at the distances in question here. A far more accurate description would be an inertial reference frame with respect to the ISS, which is in free-fall. It just happens to essentially be falling past the Earth before it hits it (the basic principle of LEO) – if there were ‘micro-gravity’ or the like, it wouldn’t orbit at all, but rather, drift off into space… (see: centripetal force)
While I agree with your points about some American universities being some of the top schools in the world, I would make the point that the sub-par primary/secondary education (up to the age of around 17/18) is arguably the most important period, covering arguably the most valuable material. If the standard of education during this phase were higher, one might expect that a higher proportion of students might be able to continue to tertiary education…?
