Failing schools a decades-old problem, at least mathematically speaking

Talk about it

Virgil Swing writes that quick math tells us that Iowa caucuses averaged fewer than seven voters each. My quick math tells me that 1,774 precinct caucuses with about 122,000 attendees would average fewer than seventy voters each. Even the editors did not catch this.

Professor Dowell Myers wrote an article on immigration for the New York Times that was reprinted in the Star Tribune. He wrote that millions are retiring every week. If there are about 127,000,000 workers in the U.S. and millions are retiring every week, then all currently employed workers would be retired within two years. The editors of neither the New York Times nor the Star Tribune have caught this. And they have published no letters pointing out this error.

John Allen Paulos, a mathematics professor at Temple University, wrote “Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences” in 2001. He wrote “A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper” in 1997. He wrote these books about the innumeracy of adults who went to school long before the hue and cry over “failing schools” was raised.

Melvyn Magree

Duluth

Editor’s Note:

We apologize for not catching that error. I do remember reading Virgil Swing’s column and thinking something in the math wasn’t quite right, but I didn’t follow up on it. Virgil Swing sent me an email shortly after the Budgeteer came out telling me he had made an “inexcusable math error.” He asked me to correct it on the on our website, which I did. I phoned Mr. Magree and told him this. Here is Mr. Magree’s email response to us:

“Thanks for your call. I'm glad that Virgil also caught his own error.”

As for me, I never make misteaks, and my check is always balanced :)

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