Politicians are Smart

Charlie Albertson, a North Carolina State Senator, is proposing a bill that would get rid of athletic programs at schools that don't perform academically.

"Senate Bill 377 would bar interscholastic athletics at schools where more than half of the students score below the 50th percentile on end-of-grade or end-of-course tests for at least two straight years."

At first glance this sounds like a reasonable request. Schools primary objective should be educating its students, and if they are not doing their primary job, they shouldn't be wasting money on athletics. However, this bill is clearly not the best way to go about it.

If you didn't catch the statistical error in the news report, re-read it. Mr. Albertson wants more than half of the students in his state to score above the 50% mark. This does not mean answering more than 50% of the questions correctly. It means he wants more half the students taking the test to do better than 50% of the students that take the test. (If that last sentence didn't make since don't blame me, blame Mr. Albertson's bill)

I haven't spent a lot of time reading about ways to improve public schools - I figure I'll think about it more once I have kids. However, when that day comes, I'll probably start with the Cato Blog.