The O'Stossel Distortion Factor

Give US a Break John:
"I have come to believe that markets are magical and the best protectors of the consumer," he once declared. "It is my job to explain the beauties of the free market" (Oregonian, 10/26/94).
In reality it's more like voodoo.
The following is from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.
"Stossel once reported (11/12/99) that "98 percent [of Catholic school students] graduate, vs. 49 percent for the public schools." Actually, according to data from the Department of Education, no state reports a public high school graduation rate as low as Stossel's figure--in 1995-96, the last data available when Stossel made his claim, the rates ranged from 53.2 in the District of Columbia to 89.9 in Vermont (Postsecondary Education Opportunity, 9/99)."

"While there is a long and honorable tradition of U.S. journalists with definite points of view who hoped that their reporting would have a political impact--from Thomas Paine to Ida Tarbell to I.F. Stone--what distinguishes Stossel is his willingness to warp reality to fit his ideological preconceptions. His reports, notable for their one-sided sourcing and rejection of inconvenient facts, are frequently marred assertions from Stossel and his favored guests that are misleading or factually incorrect.

Stossel's errors are often so obvious that one wonders how they could have ended up on the air. In a 20/20 report on medical research (10/11/99), Stossel complained that too much funding was going to AIDS research, claiming that spending on the disease was "25 times more than on Parkinson's, which kills more people."

In fact, AIDS killed more than 16,000 people in the United States in 1999--down from 43,000 in 1995. Parkinson's, which is not itself generally fatal but contributes to other illnesses, has a mortality rate of 2 per 100,000 to less than 1 per 100,000, depending on the demographic group (BC Medical Journal, 4/01)--which works out to a death toll in the United States of less than 4,000 per year."

His report on education is no different, the only "facts" are the ones that support his propaganda.
On the John Stossel ABC 20/20 blog iledu adds a few facts that John neglected to include.

"Other countries stack the deck by just having their highest academic achievers take the tests, whereas the United States has a mixed bag of low, middle and high academic achievers take the tests. In other words, Mr. Stossel is making an apples-and-oranges comparison by not explaining why the raw test scores for the United States are lower than other countries' scores. If the United States only had its highest achieving academic students taking these tests like other countries do, then the United States' test score numbers would show up at or very near the top consistently.
Perhaps Mr. Stossel will do the right thing by explaining this in a future report. It's something that the mainstream media in the United States don't often like to mention. That's because shaping facts into "bad" news by not telling the whole story results in higher radio/TV ratings, advertising revenue and newspaper/magazine sales."

One of the countries whos math scores are highest is Finland. You'd think that the most successful country in teaching math and science just might have a "Free Market" educational
system if you believe in Stosselism or Danielsonism. But here's a discription of the how Finlands schools are funded from the source EDU.FI

"Instruction is usually free of charge at all levels of education. Basic education is completely free of charge for the pupils, but with higher levels of education, students may have to pay for study materials, meals and transport.
Students receive financial aid for full-time post-basic studies lasting at least two months. Student financial aid is payable for studies at upper secondary schools, folk high schools, vocational institutions, polytechnics or universities through to doctorate level. Financial aid is also available for study abroad. The ordinary student financial aid comprises a study grant, a housing supplement and a government-guaranteed student loan. In addition, there is an adult study grant for mature students, which is determined on different criteria."

Sounds like a place where the "Government schools really work, eh"
Give US a break!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!