Earlier this fall, the Census Bureau reported that child poverty in America is finally declining for the first time in more than a decade. But while the national trend is ticking down, in many parts of the country - particularly the South - poverty rates for kids are still above the national average and higher than they were before the start of the recession.  According to new Census data out today, poverty rates for school-aged children in 2013 were still above their 2007 levels in nearly a third of all counties, many of them clustered around metro areas in California, Arizona, Florida, Georgia and North and South Carolina.

The Amazing Truth About PISA Scores: USA Beats Western Europe, Ties with Asia  by Tino Sanandaji on the New Geography website

  Once we correct (even crudely) for demography in the 2009 PISA scores, (PISA is the Program for International Student Assessment) American students outperform Western Europe by significant margins and tie with Asian students. Jump to the graphs if you don't want to read my boring set-up and methodology.  The main theme in my blog is that we shouldn't confuse policy with culture, and with demographic factors. 

"As the amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases increase, the Earth warms. Scientists warn that climate change, caused by this warming, will pose challenges to society."

That language-featured in a fifth-grade Texas social studies textbook from Pearson Education-is exactly the kind of global-warming alarmism that Emily McBurney wants to protect schoolchildren from.