“Fifty percent of our students who enter higher education need to take remedial courses because they are not prepared for college-level work.” ‑State Rep. Donna Howard (D-Austin) Since 2003, students entering public higher education institutions are required, by law, to pass a Texas Success Initiative exam which is basically an evaluation on how well they’ve mastered the three R’s. Higher test scores on the SAT and so forth can exempt a student from the test. Those who don’t score well enough must enroll in remedial classes. But we doubted nearly 600,000 students are enrolled in remedial classes. Surprisingly, we found Howard’s remarks were sort of true. Nearly 49 percent of freshmen who enrolled in community college right out of high school failed
to meet Texas Success Initiative standards in at least one area. Students entering a four-year university straight out of high school fared much better, with only 14 percent in need of remedial classes. Florida thinks they have the answer to this problem. In the recently adopted Common Core Standards Initiative, the state plans to provide remedial classes to students while they are still enrolled in high school. We’re still scratching our heads over that one. While Howard failed to specify she was speaking only of community college students, her remarks were true. Grade: Standard.
In an obscenity-laced speech April 28, in Las Vegas, Nevada:
“I don’t know if you saw the vote. There was a vote in Egypt the other day. Ninety-nine percent of the people want to break the peace treaty with Israel. Did you see that? Did anybody see that? Ninetynine percent! So, we have problems. We have weak, pathetic leadership.” -Donald Trump, potential 2012 presidential candidate After we finished wiping away tears from laughing so hard, we decided to take a look at the facts behind Trump’s claim. When a politician throws out a statistic that seems a little too contrived, it usually is. But the closest thing we found resembling a vote (there wasn’t one) was a poll published by Pew Research Center last week, which said 54
percent of Egyptians want the peace treaty with Israel annulled. This statement is completely incorrect. Maybe the Donald misunderstood the data because his TV theme song was too loud. Either way, we give this statement a Canner Grade.
May 5, 2011 • 17
In This Issue
Said during debate on the House floor April 3 as reported in the Austin American-Statesman on April 9: