Don’t laugh too hard, Kentucky — The Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions

The Kentucky Post’s surviving web presence, KYPost.com (the Kentucky Post newspaper folded several years ago), posted this item about a math-challenged Idaho woman several days ago.

The story concerns a video-gone-viral of a woman struggling with a very simple time/speed/distance math problem.

Over four million have logged into You Tube to watch this compelling example of how math instruction in Idaho clearly failed at least one of its citizens.

But, don’t get too smug, Kentucky.

I know of a young Kentucky woman who graduated from one of the Bluegrass State’s four-year universities – in a technical area, at that – but still couldn’t read a road map.

That turns a ‘road trip’ into a whole new ball game! Before you can do miles-per-hour calculations, after all, you have to know how many miles are involved.

In any event, the chilling comparison below, which comes from last year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress eighth grade mathematics assessment, shows that even if Idaho’s schools did turn out at least one math-challenged person, on average that state and many more still do better at teaching math than we are doing in the Bluegrass State.

Sadly, that math-challenged young lady from Idaho clearly is not alone. She has far too many compatriots right here in Kentucky.