Just Like the Texas “Education Miracle”

We learned last week that the Texas Miracle was really the result of low standards on the TAAS, not accurately reporting dropouts, and excluding expected low-performers from taking tests.

John Ashcroft, meet Rod Paige: it appears that the same tactics are being used to inflate the terrorism conviction rate:

In a speech before the FBI Academy in September, President Bush said that since the attacks, U.S. prosecutors have charged more than 260 suspected terrorists, of whom 140 have already been convicted.

But critics say the new data – compiled by researchers at Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, using Justice Department reports – provide a very different picture, one that suggests the government is inflating its success by categorizing minor prosecutions as related to terrorism … but the number of individuals [convicted of international terrorism related offences] who received sentences of five or more years actually dropped.

I suppose the administration could counter that only the minor offenders are being tried, while the alleged serious offenders are simply being held without trial in Guantanamo — though now about 20% of those prisoners are scheduled for release.

AB

P.S. Regular Daily Hower readers knew way back in 2000 that there was something fishy about the Texas education numbers.