Iowahawk Beats Krugman to a Pulp
Iowahawk took after NYT columnist Paul Krugman who had suggested that the unionized teachers in Wisconsin provided better educations than non union teachers in Texas do. Some readers objected and Iowahawk has written a follow up to his Krugman. It is absolutely devastating to Krugman and the dissenting readers and is aptly titled “Badgering the Witless.” Here’s the conclusion:
“The short recap to Michael’s NAEP results is that after controlling for ethnicity, compared to the running-dog Gang of Five non-collective bargaining states (TX, VA, SC, NC, GA), Wisconsin is a (1) middling performer for white students; (2) below middling for Hispanic students, and (3) an absolute disaster for black students.”
Read both articles for their educational value and to enjoy the brilliant author’s outstanding wit.
Another interesting thing to point out: Texas (and other “red” states) is frequently derided as an educational dystopia because certain towns flirt with ID and creationism. Interesting that the science scores in Texas are so much better for the ethnic groups across the board, and dramatically better for minorities.
One thing that Iowahawk didn’t point out, but I will: these ethnic gaps also explain most of the the math and science gaps between American and Asian students. This is critically important, because if our math and science gap represents a national economic crisis (I don’t think it does), effort needs to be concentrated specifically on minorities. There’s a huge festering problem there, and nobody wants to talk about it.
Iowahawk’s critics should have stayed down for the count. Now they have to go get new teeth.
He really flattened them, didn’t he?
This is critically important, because if our math and science gap represents a national economic crisis (I don’t think it does), effort needs to be concentrated specifically on minorities. There’s a huge festering problem there, and nobody wants to talk about it.
There has been a fair amount of effort on improving minority academic achievement.Some effort has been successful. Some effort has not been successful.
One example of an unsuccessful effort: The Annenberg Challenge in Chicago, where Barack Obama was in charge of doling out research funds to improve education in public schools in Chicago- over $100 million when one counts matching funds. Schools that were blessed with Annenberg Challenge-funded research were no different in academic achievement than those schools which got no Annenberg Challenge-funded research.
It was about $160 million, after the ‘matching’ funds were accounted for. It wasn’t an ‘unsuccessful effort’, since education wasn’t the prime target. Obama used the funds to fatten up his community-organizing cronies, who probably still distort Chicago politics with the remainders of the immense windfall they received from the diversion of Annenberg funds.
Now, if only our op-ed columnists were given posts by the superior European system by which University professors match wits for their Chairs.
Were Herr Krugman to lose such a direct debate to Mr. Iowahawk, the next NYT op-ed page would have Iowahawk firmly seated at Krugman’s old keyboard pounding out columns of wisdom, and Herr Krugman would be leaning on the hood of a dented pickup, dubiously staring into a newly-opened can of Bondo.
I am surprised at how much Iowahawk knows about statistics–his two pieces get to the issue of confounding variables very effectively and probably will be used by statistics teachers in the future to explain the issue (especially if they are politically conservative and enjoy seeing Paul Krugman beaten up). Iowahawk also answers those who love the appeal to authority with his link to a paper by Caroline Hoxby, who may be unknown to the general public but is highly regarded by economists who study education. In the conclusion of her paper, she writes, “I find that teachers’ unions are primarily rent seeking, raising school budgets and school inputs but lowering student achievement by decreasing the productivity of inputs.”
Some of the very best bloggers are successful in other careers and blog for fun. Iowahawk is one of them. If you didn’t know it before you can tell by his analysis that he is very knowledgeable about statistics. He’s also very wise about business and science. And he can restore old cars and write funnier stuff than anyone. The NYT could do worse than offering him Krugman’s spot. On the other hand reading his columns would cause apoplexy all over NYC.
Hmm… such an apoplexy epidemic would be a feature, not a bug.
He’s dabbled in stats before. I remember a year or so ago, he had a post where he was showing how to do some do-it-yourself climate statistics. Somebody over at Climateaudit asked Steve McIntyre about it, and Steve, no slouch at statistics, said it wasn’t very remarkable, but it was correct.
I’d be flattered to have Steve McIntyre tell me I did anything right in stats.