05 April 2011

Who Supports School Vouchers?

Education vouchers are generally disliked by poor whites and are liked by rich whites (if they happen to be Catholic or evangelical Protestant), poor Hispanics, and poor blacks in the Northeast.


From

The Monkey Cage, reacting to inaccurate op-ed statements in the Wall Street Journal with actual facts.

As someone who believes that good data analysis is the only hope we have of saving the world, I also add this from the Monkey Cage post:


P.S. Why does this irritate me so much? I analyze survey data for a living. If I were to go around making up numbers about the atomic weight of potassium or international trade, people would rightly ask what I know about chemistry or economics. But when people start spreading false statements about public opinion, they're believed without question--even by a science writer who prides himself on defying conventional wisdom--and used as part of a pseudo-populist argument about that despicable group, "rich whites," It all just makes me want to barf. If you want to attack rich whites, fine. But use a more plausible argument, please!

1 comment:

Dave Barnes said...

I LOVE school vouchers.
Atheist.
Middle class. Family income = $50K.
White.

Screw the teachers' union.
Screw the federal rules.