The Washington Post has finally gotten around to correct this totally wrong op-ed written by Robert C. Pianta, Dean of the University of Virginia Curry School of Education and Human Development that argued “public funding for schools had decreased since the late 1980s” when it “in fact . . . has increased between the 1980s and 2019”:
Washington Post made the correction!
"An earlier version of the piece stated that public funding for schools had decreased since the late 1980s.
That is not the case. In fact, funding at the federal, state, and local levels has increased between the 1980s and 2019." pic.twitter.com/XGHxP0vSMx
— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) December 18, 2019
Here’s the before-and-after so you can see just how bad this was:
Here is the before and after.
They *completely* removed the sentence about spending decreasing because it was entirely indefensible. pic.twitter.com/FMmuDA6SXn
— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) December 18, 2019
However, the Post did keep the subheading which argues, “The one thing we haven’t tried in the past 30 years is sufficiently investing in our schools”:
This is great – they kept the subheading:
"The one thing we haven't tried in the past 30 years is sufficiently investing in our schools."
That would be true if spending decreased, but they just admitted that it did not. pic.twitter.com/v4BKEcUNrT
— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) December 18, 2019
The fact that this mistake was made by Pianta is actually worse than if a journo had done it:
A lot of people are commenting that this was a big mistake by a Washington Post *journalist*
But it's worse than that.
It was Robert Pianta, dean of UVA's Curry School of Education.
— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) December 18, 2019
And it took them quite a while to make the correction:
Good work. Few qs. How long did it take? Do you think you were the catalyst. Anyone get thanked?
— Parth Brooks (@ParthVenkat) December 18, 2019
Why would they care? Something, something darkness and all that:
(1) 8 days
(2) I have been emailing back and forth with the editor over the last week on how to correct, so yes
(3) I'd like to thank that editor, but I don't know if he'd like me sharing his information.
— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) December 18, 2019
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