Nearly 80 percent of NYC high school graduates functionally illiterate

I think Mayor Bloomberg has other things to worry about than banning large sodas.

It’s an education bombshell.

Nearly 80 percent of New York City high school graduates need to relearn basic skills before they can enter the City University’s community college system.

The number of kids behind the 8-ball is the highest in years, CBS 2′s Marcia Kramer reported Thursday.

The public education system has been mocked for years, hell, for decades, due to it's poor performance.  My personal experience backed up the mockery perfectly - when I went to the university after graduating from high school, I was surprised at how little my fellows knew about anything, even something as simple as how many centimeters comprised a meter.  Politicians are constantly trying to reform it, and schools are constantly complaining about funding.  But funding per student has risen to triple - adjusted for inflation - what it was in the early 1960s. 

Have you ever noticed how statists are constantly “reforming” their own handiwork? Education reform. Health-care reform. Welfare reform. Tax reform. The very fact that they’re always busy “reforming” is an implicit admission that they didn’t get it right the first 50 times. - Lawrence W. Reed

Of course, if the reform is just smoke and mirrors, you're left with the conclusion that the dumbing down of your children (and future voters) is intentional.  Why could they possibly want stupid voters?  Could it be that ignorance leads to easily manipulated elections?

In October 2008, a few weeks before the elections, national polls indicated that “We The Voters” gave our Congress a 10% to 15% job approval rating. Then, in November “We The Voters” went to the polls and re-elected 95% of them right back into office. In any other (non-government) organization in the world an across-the-board 10% job approval rating would likely result in 95% of the group being demoted or fired. But in the U.S. Congress 10% approval equals 95% re-elected...

But hey, as long as everyone is happy I guess it's OK right?  Don't go and put reality between me and Snooki.