NeffZone: Interesting Percentages

It’s an old axiom that statistics can prove just about anything. The same can be said about percentages. You have to be careful to sort fact from fiction. For example, when presidential candidate Rick Perry claims that in Texas, “we lowered our nitrogen oxide levels by 58 percent” you have to look how that percentage was determined. It turns out that’s counting only point source emissions, largely from industrial and power plants. When you count all sources, total nitrogen oxide emissions have been reduced by only 16 percent in Texas, according to EPA calculations, lower than the national average. (Daily Beast)

That said, however, some recent percentages in the news are (at the very least) worth some consideration. Right now, the Michigan legislature is trying to enact a nine-bill package that will lead to the creation of more charter schools. The logic put forward by Republican legislative thinking is that more charter schools will mean a better education for the state’s students, and their assumption is backed by the conservative ideologues at the Mackinaw Center.

However, a simple look at the performance percentages compiled by the Michigan Department of Education might indicate that before Michigan creates more charter schools it ought to take a look at how the current ones are doing. In percentile rankings of K-12 schools, of the 200 charters evaluated 153 (76%) of those scored in the bottom half of the rankings and 100 of those 153 (50%) scored in the bottom 25% of the rankings.

Now, the Mackinaw Center can spin this six ways from Sunday, but the percentages show that the vast majority of for-profit charters are failing miserably from an education standpoint. Then why are companies flocking to Michigan seeking to open even more charters? The key term here would be “for-profit.”

In a sort of related vein, I’ve watched the mad scramble by universities to change conferences and thereby reap increased television revenues. It’s all greed driven with no thought given to tradition, the students, or the alumni. As they say, “meanwhile back at the ranch,” no attention is being paid to something going on in real America. School districts are being forced to cut back in all areas, athletics among them. According to the National Sporting Goods Association, over the past decade participation in the following sports is in rapid decline: wrestling down 44%, football 16%, ice hockey 12%, baseball 8%, and basketball not down but with no increase. While the universities are on a greed and spending binge, perhaps they might want to look at these numbers. What happens when that steady flow of athletes dries up?

On the political scene, the subject of taxes (and who pays them) is always interesting. I won’t assume to know the way out of the morass that is the current tax code. However, the Detroit Free Press did an analysis and one percentage caught my eye. If you look at people with incomes between $75,000 -$100,000, the number of those people paying absolutely no federal income tax rose 12,000% between 1996-2009. Twelve thousand percent! In this day and age that income level is not all that much, but a 12,000% increase in those who paid no tax? Yup, that tax code sure makes sense, eh? Oh well, at least some middle class people cashed in, just like the 1,400 millionaires who paid no federal taxes in 2009.

Finally, many would say it’s a good thing that Governor Snyder signed into law a four-year limit on cash assistance. The thinking was that Michigan’s welfare benefits were so generous that the state was being overrun by poor people from other states moving here to get in on the gravy train. That’s an interesting theory, except it’s not based in fact.

According to the Michigan League of Human Services, in the three years prior to the Governor’s signing Michigan actually saw a 3.7% decrease in its caseload. The neighboring states of Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, and Wisconsin all had caseload increases. The assertion that people were moving to Michigan just to collect assistance and benefits was pure myth. Aren’t you glad your wise legislators took the time to deal with a problem that did not exist? Your tax dollars at work.


People also view

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *