John Stossel ... "The Market's working for me!"

I recently posted over on Captain Jimi about Bu$hCo's Education Department research running contrary to the official party line. Never fear conservatism, John Stossel is riding to the rescue of the doctrine in distress.

At the start of the month, our Prime Time Propagandist was named "Outlander of the Day", an admittedly short lived concept, that gives you a little background on the Stossel style of journalism.

Ever the advocate for school choice, even getting prime time opportunities to shill his seemingly biased and misleading "reporting", Mr. Stossel appears via TownHall, amongst other illuminaries of the wingnut welfare and corporate journalist class, with "Smearing education choice".

Read the column and then tell me who is doing the "smearing"! Jabbing at the Gray Lady is always good for some read meat for the base and then telling the informed readers of TownHall they just don't like capitalism and free markets, much less "conservative Christian" schools, seals the deal for me.

"Torturing the data" is the phrase he uses to lament the DOE's own researchers applying what he admits is a valid statistical tool, namely regressional analysis, to control for poverty and parenting factors.

It's "telling to me" that you cite international comparisons, claiming the Times/mainstream media leave this out of their reporting as they are "eager to defend a unionized government monopoly". You admit American kids compare favorably to students of other developed nations in early years, as measured by all knowing tests I'm sure, and then fall behind in later grades. There's no way the fact that the U.S. doesn't openly track out kids to manual labor, technical, and university programs in kid's early teenage years like these other nations generally do would have anything to do with this is there John?

No cultural factors in play are there? Concentrated poverty ... don't be silly! Professional educators that point out these concerns and offer solutions are obviously defending their lucrative and respected turf. Why don't they, after two plus decades of conservatism controlling educational policy, admit they don't have the answers?

School choice under the beloved market would solve all our problems! Doctrine rescued. Bureaucrats/unions and the NYT smeared. Conservative Christians defended from persecution! Well done Sir Stossel!

Finally, in your column you cited various studies, with no links or references, that support some of your arguments. While I'm expecting Jay Greene and/or The Manhattan Institute was/were involved in some I'm not going to do the work of looking. If you take the lottery winners that made it into a school with wealthier and more motivated fellow students and compare them with kids left behind in perhaps poorer populations, then I'm not so sure who is guilty of torturing the data.

I'm not surprised John Stossel can find a place for his work on TownHall yet the fact that ABC gives his type time to do their shilling continues to amaze me. I guess the market does have all the solutions for "journalists" like John Stossel. Peace ... or War!