PolitiFact.com
Statements about Education
Kitty Boitnott

Kitty Boitnott

Mostly True

Number slightly off

Public education has been permanently cut "by $1.6 billion through changes in the Standards of Quality funding formula."

Fred Clark

Fred Clark

Half-True

Only part of the equation

Says Gov. Scott Walker "made more than $70 million in cuts to job training programs through (Wisconsin’s) technical colleges."

Jim Whelan

Jim Whelan

Mostly True

Still room for error

"United States of America is twenty-sixth in school performance in the world."

Stacey Campfield

Stacey Campfield

Pants on Fire!

Completely ridiculous

AIDS was transmitted to humans because "one guy" had sex with "a monkey" and then started "having sex with men."

Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich

Mostly False

Actually, four-year completion rates have risen steadily in recent years

Students today "take more years to get through" college.

Nathan Deal

Nathan Deal

False

Almost none are "skilled trade" jobs

Siemens has been unable to fill approximately 200 skilled trade positions in metro Atlanta.

Donald McEachin

Donald McEachin

False

School funding goes up; so does teachers' pension cost

Gov. McDonnell's proposed budget "is cutting" public education. 

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney

Half-True

Voted to create it, didn't recently want to get rid of it

"(Newt Gingrich) voted in favor of establishing the Department of Education, and yet he gets in a debate and says we should get rid of the Department of Education and send all the education issues back to the states."

Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich

True

Muchos idiomas!

There are 86 languages spoken at Miami Dade College.

Silvestre Reyes

Silvestre Reyes

Half-True

Other reasons for waivers at play

Says 282 Texas school districts have requested emergency waivers to increase elementary school class sizes because of "unprecedented fiscal challenges."

Bob McDonnell

Bob McDonnell

False

If it sounds like a duck...

Says proposal to boost teacher pension fund "puts no mandate on local government."

Arne Duncan

Arne Duncan

Mostly True

Other nations advancing in studies

"One generation ago we led the world in college graduation. We're 16th today."

David Sciarra

David Sciarra

False

Not much, but not nothing

Says over the last two years, New Jersey Schools Development Authority employees "have not started or completed one single school project, and I’m not talking about major school renovation. I’m talking about replacing boilers, roofs."

Donald McEachin

Donald McEachin

True

A tiny loss of school funding

Gov. Bob McDonnell’s budget plan takes "money out of our classrooms to pave roads."

Angel Taveras

Angel Taveras

Half-True

True for city averages, not so much for state

"In Connecticut and New York, students at Achievement First schools consistently outperform city and statewide averages."

Kriner Cash

Kriner Cash

Mostly True

State near bottom; county fares better but pays smaller share

The education tax burden for Shelby County -- and Tennessee -- is "one of the lowest in the country."

Ron Paul

Ron Paul

Half-True

Not so simple

Says that when Republicans held Congress and the presidency, they "doubled the size of the (U.S.) Department of Education."

Rick Scott

Rick Scott

Half-True

Doesn't make up for last year's cuts

"My recommended budget includes $1 billion in new state funding for education."

Ronald Rice

Ronald Rice

False

More like 11 percent

Says in Newark "we’re paying 80 percent of the school budget from local property taxes."

Chris Christie

Chris Christie

Pants on Fire!

Wrong twice before. Still wrong now.

Says "kids who start in the ninth grade in the city of Newark this past September, 23 percent of them will graduate in four years."

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