Note to Drudge and Malkin: Do The Math on Education

[kerrygoddess]

Note to Drudge and Malkin: Do The Math on Education
February 1st, 2006 @ 3:26 pm

Both Drudge and Michelle Malkin are making an issue out of what was obviously a mis-speak this morning by John Kerry on the Today Show and the wingnuts have joined in the chorus. It was evident that Kerry gave Couric a bit of thrashing… and now the wingnuts are protesting.

Malkin quotes Kerry saying this morning, “53 percent of our children don’t graduate from high school.” He then goes on to say “Kids don’t have after-school programs.”

Could it be that Kerry was referring to lower income kids and their parents, that rely on after-school programs? You know the ones who’s parents can’t afford college, the ones that rely on Pell Grants — “Only 9 percent of the people eligible in America will be able to get Pell Grants this year, and for the fifth year in a row they’re not going to raise the amount of money to help kids who have a 57 percent increase in their costs of education be able to pay for it.”

Drudge and Malkin dredged up up the 2003 Census Report that shows “that 84 percent of Americans over the age of 25 are high school grads.” Malkin failed to correctly quote the Census Report — Percent of People 25 Years and Over Who Have Completed High School (Including Equivalency), Population 25 years and over (State level).

I did the math on this — and I am no statistics major, but it seems to me that if the data reported was from 2003, and most of the people surveyed in 2003 were 25 or older, that would mean that they graduated from High School on or before 1996 - given average age of 18 for high school graduates.

Just yesterday the L.A. Times published a story on high school drop out rates.

Statistics Versus Reality

The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, in conjunction with UCLA, produced a controversial report last spring saying that official dropout statistics in California’s largest school districts were shockingly out of sync with reality. The researchers found that only 48% of the L.A. Unified students who started ninth grade in 1999 graduated four years later. The district claims a graduation rate of 66%.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who wants to take over the school district, jumped on the study to assert that half of the students in L.A. Unified were dropping out.

MORE & LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=1827

[LA lady]

1. He needs to make sure it's right

He used the same statistics in a speech 3 months ago. He needs to get an aide checking this or the media will use it against him (like they need anything, they make up there own crap half the time).

"Kerry then emphasized education, saying that "53 percent of high school students in the United States do not graduate high school." China and India are racing further ahead in education and technology fields and that this calls for a new national educational plan, he said."

http://www.dailycollegian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/11/07/436edb3746a04

[karynnj]

3. It's too bad no one called it to his attention

I assume that someone on his staff must have at some point taken the statistic out of context and he used it in his speeches.

[sandnsea]

6. That's accurate in many places

Alot closer to accurate than Malkin's education attainment rate.

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/ewp_08.htm

[Dr Fate]

2. Until Malkin starts wearing a Nazi S.S. "She Wolf" outfit...

...she is useless to me.

If she could get the riding crop, black military jacket and tilted SS Officers cap, I could at least employ her for a few minutes during my morning shower.

[11 Bravo]

4. Damn! A post containing the word "Malkin" actually made me smile!

:rofl:

[Dr Fate]

5. Glad to be of service. I do have my moments of self loathing. n/t

n/t

[11 Bravo]

7. OK, but if you ever have a Coulter dream I beg you to seek immediate help.

Some conditions are simply too dangerous to remain untreated.

[Dr Fate]

8. I actually tried it once- with the same outfit even...

...but the adams apple killed it- and those boat-feet of hers.

[Doctor_J]

9. Do you think Sludge or Malkin has any interest in this?

They don't report truth, just propaganda. Yikes, we do waste a lot of energy with crap like this. Why not print a "Note To W: Saddam Didn't Have Any WMD"

:eyes:

Wait - maybe she's come to her senses

[kerrygoddess]

11. Bush was talking up his new Math & Science education initiative today

They probably picked up on this to let this story on Bush's initiative, slip on by...

Bush’s Plan to Strengthen Math and Science Would Give Corporate Tax Breaks to R&D Projects
February 1st, 2006 @ 4:34 pm

Hmm… Speaking of education, here’s some interesting news about Bush’s new initiative to strengthen math and science education — “but two of three dollars in his new multibillion initiative to keep America competitive would fund business tax breaks.”

Isn’t that special? Math Plus Science Would Equal Tax Breaks.

Note to Bush: Why not try a different approach? Why not spend more money educating our children and instead of giving tax breaks for those R&D projects. If we have better educated kids that can join the workforce in fields that involve Math & Science than those R&D projects will be more successful and the companies wouldn’t need tax breaks to have higher profits.

MORE & LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=1828

[bilgewaterbill]

10. Sounds like he used the LA stats as a national number.

[kerrygoddess]

12. He probably has access ot a lot of data on this we don't see

Educati0n has always a priority issue for JK, I don't think he's uniformed, he's not bying what BushCo is selling is what it is.

[bilgewaterbill]

13. Like what data?

[kerrygoddess]

14. I dunno

but the average person doesn't read the sort of stuff that informed Senaotrs do. My original post on the Dem Daily has a few links to studies that i would not have read if I was not looking for info to debunk Drudge and Malkin. The stuff I referenced is the sort of stuff I think Kerry would read, education studies from think tanks.