I found this article–wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. Here are the Detroit Public Schools results for the 2002 Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP):
|
Reading Test Takers
|
Reading SAT Pct
|
Reading MOD Pct
|
Reading LOW Pct
|
| 13797 | 32.20% | 27.00% | 40.80% |
I have no idea how these scores map onto NAEP scores (if it’s provided on the site, they’ve hidden it well), but it seems if only 32.2% of your students score SATISFACTORY, and 40.8% of your students score LOW, there’s a problem.
Now for the article, courtesy of Matt Johnson:
We have come to the conclusion that the crisis Michigan faces is not a shortage of revenue, but an excess of idiocy. Facing a budget deficit that has passed the $1 billion mark, House Democrats Thursday offered a spending plan that would buy a MP3 player or iPod for every school child in Michigan.
No cost estimate was attached to their hare-brained idea to “invest” in education. Details, we are promised, will follow.
Never mind the budget deficit. What about the reading scores? 40.8% of the students in Detroit’s public schools score LOW on the reading proficiency test, and the Democrats want to buy each student in iPod? How, exactly, is that funding education?
Idiots.
