G.I. Guarantee Watch: Day 1

by David Safier

The Goldwater Institute has a "Guaranteed Research" policy.

If the accuracy of any material fact or reference to an independent source is questioned and brought to the Institute’s attention with supporting evidence, the Institute will respond in writing. If an error exists, it will be noted on the Goldwater Institute website and in all subsequent distribution of the publication.

A week ago, I sent an email to Matthew Ladner pointing out an error in one of his Daily Emails.

He emailed back and said, basically, Yeah, it was kind of wrong. I won't do it again.

I replied to his email, writing, basically, Not good enough. Honor your guarantee and note the error on your website.

I haven't received a reply. So today, a week later, I am beginning the G.I. Guarantee Watch, which I will update daily. (Not on weekends, of course. That would be wrong.)

Here is the Daily Email passage with the error:

The National Center for Education Statistics reveals that of the 104,630 employees at Arizona school districts in 2007-08, only 54,032 of them were teachers. What is more worthy of funding: maintaining an almost 1-to-1 teacher to bureaucrat ratio or maintaining services for the mentally ill? [Bold face added]

The statement labels every non-teacher in Arizona school districts as a bureaucrat. That's an obvious error. Bus drivers, maintenance workers and food services workers cannot be considered bureaucrats.

Ladner replied. He excused himself by saying the word bureaucrat "has rather broad definitions." but "I'll use a term like non-teachers going forward."

Not good enough, I replied to his reply. There is no way to interpret "bureaucrat" to include bus drivers, maintenance workers and food service workers. I looked up a dozen definitions and couldn't find one as "broad" as that. An error is an error is an error. It needs to be corrected to fulfill the spirit and the letter of the G.I. Guarantee.

A week later, Ladner hasn't replied. A week is plenty of time to wait for a reply. No more Mister Nice Guy.

Today is Day 1.