Do Unions Make the Difference? Paul Krugman Speaks

Over at Iowa Hawk we have this lede

Please pardon this brief departure from my normal folderol, but every so often a member of the chattering class issues a nugget of stupidity so egregious that no amount of mockery will suffice. Particularly when the issuer of said stupidity holds a Nobel Prize.

The reason is New York Times Columnist Dr Paul Krugman stating that there is a correlation between states without collective bargaining rights for teachers and low test scores.

Only 5 states do not have collective bargaining for educators and have deemed it illegal. Those states and their ranking on ACT/SAT scores are as follows:

South Carolina – 50th
North Carolina – 49th
Georgia – 48th
Texas – 47th
Virginia – 44th

If you are wondering, Wisconsin, with its collective bargaining for teachers, is ranked 2nd in the country.

So, there you have it.  People in Texas are dumb and they are even dumber for not having teacher unions.  Or so it would seem.  But, the Iowa Hawk then goes into that terrible swamp known as differences due to "race".

So how does brokeass, dumbass, redneck Texas stack up against progressive unionized Wisconsin?

2009 4th Grade Math

White students: Texas 254, Wisconsin 250 (national 248)
Black students: Texas 231, Wisconsin 217 (national 222)
Hispanic students: Texas 233, Wisconsin 228 (national 227)

And so it goes for Math, Science and Reading for 4th and 8th grades.

Put another way, Texas has more minority students than Wisconsin and are doing more with them.

But, these numbers do point out that we still have a ways to go to make the American Dream come alive for everyone.

Hat tip to Ann Althouse, herself a resident of Wisconsin.

Regards  —  Cliff