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Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who failed to surge in voter polls, suspended his bid for the Republican presidential nod this afternoon.
Our mild take: He repeated a couple of claims we've explored.
It's MOSTLY FALSE that Texas high-school graduation rates surged from 27th to second nationally mostly on Perry's watch. This claim, which we explored this July, jammed together results reached by different calculations--a statistical no-no leaving the misimpression that Texas galloped past many states on Perry’s watch. Texas actually moved from about 27th nationally in 2002 to tied for 22nd in 2012, according to a measure that compares graduates each year to tallies of students earlier enrolled in lower grades. By a newer gauge tied to tracking individual students, Texas in 2013 tied for third (not No. 2).
We'd put more factual stock in another claim revisited by Perry this afternoon--his reference to Texas gaining 1.5 million jobs while the rest of the country lost 400,000. MOSTLY TRUE, we held in June. The figures hold up though Perry cherry-picked a time period arguably giving Texas more of a gloss than it might get with other periods. More generally, no governor determines job gains or losses in a state; outside factors tend to prevail. In Texas, the fracking boom comes to mind. Governors don’t create oil and gas fields.
Our longer view: Perry has been subjected to the Truth-O-Meter 168 times.
Overheard: As Perry left the site of his suspension speech today, a reporter asked for elaboration. "No, ma'am," he said. "I'm rolling."