Daily Archives: March 7, 2011

Bill-O Tells a Fib

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I just came across a column by Bill O’Reilly in which the Big Giant Head says,

Here’s a lesson that is both ironic and sad at the same time. According to the U.S. Department of Education, two-thirds of the eight graders in Wisconsin cannot read proficiently. But assuming the kids are skilled enough to watch TV, they can now see their teachers demonstrating to keep their generous union benefits. So, while things do not seem to be going well in the classroom, any thought of holding teachers somewhat responsible is cause for a protest march.

Bill-O provides no link to wherever the Department of Education said such a thing. Since I just did a post about education statistics last week, however, I knew where to look for Department of Education statistics. And according to the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, the average reading score on the National Assessment of Educational Progress for Wisconsin eighth grade students is comfortably above the national average.

So either kids in other states are mostly illiterate, or Bill-O told a fib.

Through another page I learned that the average reading scale score for eighth graders nationwide was 262 (out of what I do not know), and the Wisconsin average was 266, Wisconsin’s eight-graders ranked 21st among the states. Massachusetts was first at 274, and last among the states was Mississippi, at 251.

I did some keyword searches on the Department of Education site and found nothing that said two-thirds of Wisconsin eighth graders don’t read proficiently.

Bill-O attributes his own superior education to St. Brigid’s School on Long Island, where there were 60 students and one nun in the classroom. “The nun brooked no nonsense,” he said. “She forced us to learn.” However, she forgot to teach him it’s not nice to pull data out of his ass.

Not So Fast …

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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Wisconsin Senate Democrats are about to end their exile and come home. However, it appears Mr. Murdoch was indulging in wishful thinking. The senators told a Milwaukee NBC affiliate that the report was “more fiction than fact.”

Elsewhere — Throughout this episode, conservatives have said the Wisconsin senators are trying to overturn the last election by obstructing the judgment of the Senate majority. Ezra Klein makes the point that the senators are “filibustering with their feet.” Their delaying tactics have given the voters of Wisconsin an opportunity to learn more about the union-busting “budget” bill, and polls show they don’t like it much. Further, Ezra says, “The Democrats have shown the voters exactly what it is that they voted for in Walker.” Heh.

And what’s in Walker’s budget? Amanda Terkel writes that some of Walker’s “savings” come from de-funding Planned Parenthood and other family planning programs. The bill even repeals a state law that requires commercial health insurers in the state to cover birth control pills. Exactly what does that have to do with balancing Wisconsin’s budget?

Further, someone might point out to Walker that contraceptives are a lot cheaper than paying for pregnancy, childbirth, and infant care. The state’s health department said in 2008 that “expanding family planning services prevented an estimated 11,064 unplanned pregnancies and saved nearly $140 million in expenditures that would have been used to cover the births and health care costs of those children,” Terkel writes.

This is not a difficult thing to understand. Either Walker is extremely stupid, or he doesn’t really care about saving money as much as using the budget to impose his moral “values” on Wisconsin.