Courtesy of Jim Geraghty at the Campaign Spot, we find some remarks which the President delivered at yet another fundraiser this week. This time the topic was education and a not so subtle reminder of precisely how well things are going as a result of his policies. From the White House web site:

On the education front, we’ve seen the high school dropout rate go down, college enrollment rate go up, reading scores and math scores going up.

As Jim notes, this is a rather interesting interpretation of the ground game in education. The record on test scores, even accounting for revised standards putting a thumb on the scale, is not such a clear cut success as was implied.

American high school seniors showed no improvement in their math and reading abilities in four years, according to the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often known as the nation’s “report card.”

Adding to the discouraging news, achievement gaps between demographic groups have not lessened. And while the 12th-grade math scores are at least slightly higher than they were in 2005 (the earliest scores available for math, due to changes in the test), the reading scores are actually lower than they were in 1992, when the reading score trend line begins.

The dropout rate is going down (thankfully) but it’s been doing that steadily for about the last twenty years. It’s good news to be sure, but there is hardly any evidence that this is some new result of any hot off the press Obama administration initiatives.

I would further note that the President has repeatedly talked (as recently as this April) about the importance of our next generation being able to compete in an increasingly global workforce. That means keeping our students at least on par with their peers in other countries. And yet, as of the last reported statistics, America has once again fallen further behind, dropping in the critical area of science studies from 18th to 23 and doing even worse in math in the international rankings for performance.

In math, the United States scored below 29 nations and education systems in 2012 on the Program for International Student Assessment – dropping from 23rd in 2009, when the test was given last; the latest average score posted by the U.S. was higher than 26 nations and not measurably different than 9. Poland, Vietnam, Austria, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Latvia and Luxembourg passed the United States for the first time.

In science, the United States lagged behind 22 nations – falling from 18th in 2009; scores were higher than 29 nations and about the same as 13.

The claims that the President makes in these stump speeches are simply not supported by the facts. How does he keep going out there with the same material? Jim has a theory.

The president’s saying something that isn’t true isn’t really surprising anymore. What these lines indicate is that no one around him bothers to check or update the standard fundraiser-speech applause lines, that a lot of what the president “knows” is not actually true, and that his fan base doesn’t really care or bother to check if the condition of the country is getting better under their preferred policies; they simply take it on faith that everything is working out as intended.

Somebody needs to study a bit more. And that, in itself, is pretty frightening.