Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour loves statistics. Among those he’s cited recently:
– Education spending in Mississippi has risen nearly 50 percent in the last five years
– Over the last 10 years, Mississippi ranks third in the nation in education funding increases
– Mississippi’s average teacher salaries have gone from $29,500 in 1999 to $42,000 next year.
Wow! Suddenly, everything sounds rosy!
But these are empty statistics: numbers that have no meaning at all, because they’ve been cited out of context. When confronted with an empty statistic, you should ask questions. For example:
Empty Statistic: Education spending in Mississippi has risen nearly 50 percent in the last five years.
Tricky Tactic: Leaving the actual numbers out makes any meaningful measurement of progress impossible.
Questions You Should Ask: Where did we start? What was our educational spending in Mississippi five years ago? How adequate was that spending? How did that level of spending compare with per-pupil spending on a nationwide basis? Compared to other states and their per-pupil spending, how much better off are we today, now that spending has increased fifty percent in the last five years?
(I know the answer to that last question: despite the “fifty percent increase over the last five years,” Mississippi still ranks 49th in spending per pupil. That context makes a “fifty percent increase” sound less impressive, doesn’t it?)
Empty Statistic: Over the last 10 years, Mississippi ranks third in the nation in education funding increases.
Tricky Tactic: Avoiding the context provided by specific numbers makes it impossible to determine whether or not these increases were adequate.
Questions You Should Ask: But are those increases adequate? Do they meet the minimum standards proposed for adequately funding education? Given those increases, how much are we spending per pupil today? How does that amount compare with what other states are spending? How far behind other states were we? To what extent did those increases bring us closer to the national average? To what extent did those increases leave us “at the back of the pack?”
Empty Statistic: Mississippi’s average teacher salaries have gone from $29,500 in 1999 to $42,000 next year.
Tricky Tactic: Quote numbers out of context in order to ignore factors like cost of living increases, inflation, and average teacher pay in other states.
Questions You Should Ask: How does that compare to average teacher pay in other states? How “real” is that increase when 1999 dollars are adjusted to equal 2005 dollars? How has that increase in pay kept pace with the cost of living?
Listen carefully to any politican who cites statistics. If he doesn’t provide context for the numbers … he’s got something to hide.
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