Iowahawk v Paul Krugman

The pseudonymous blogger Iowahawk is known for two things: knowledgeable posts about classic cars and hilarious satirical posts about Democratic politicians. But, Paul Krugman's recent writings comparing the allegedly superior educational results in Wisconsin (where they have collective bargaining) against those of Texas (no collective bargaining, don't you know) have inspired 'Hawk to drop character and act serious. The results are a thorough beat down of the Nobel Prize winning economist:

To recap: white students in Texas perform better than white students in Wisconsin, black students in Texas perform better than black students in Wisconsin, Hispanic students in Texas perform better than Hispanic students in Wisconsin. In 18 separate ethnicity-controlled comparisons, the only one where Wisconsin students performed better than their peers in Texas was 4th grade science for Hispanic students (statistically insignificant), and this was reversed by 8th grade. Further, Texas students exceeded the national average for their ethnic cohort in all 18 comparisons; Wisconsinites were below the national average in 8, above average in 8.

Perhaps the most striking thing in these numbers is the within-state gap between white and minority students. Not only did white Texas students outperform white Wisconsin students, the gap between white students and minority students in Texas was much less than the gap between white and minority students in Wisconsin. In other words, students are better off in Texas schools than in Wisconsin schools -especially minority students.

Conclusion: instead of chanting slogans in Madison, maybe it's time for Wisconsin teachers to take refresher lessons from their non-union counterparts in the Lone Star State.

Read the whole thing, and then wonder, "Does Krugman come up with this stuff because any amount of lying through statistics is justified" as long as it helps The Cause? Or is he really this obtuse?"