Revealed Preferences and Fake Culture Wars

Republicans say the economy is terrible. Also: They're buying more boats than at any time in American history.

Every poll question about voter sentiment concerning the economy should be followed by the question “Do you own a boat?” (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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1. Revealed Preferences

Yesterday we talked about the . . . tension . . . between opinion and reality as observed in polling attitudes toward K-12 schools in America.¹

Here’s another instance, courtesy of an NYT op-ed by Bridgette Exman, who’s an assistant superintendent of a school district in Iowa.

Exman’s piece details her district’s response to a law enacted in July which made school districts and individual teachers liable for the inclusion of any books with a description of a sexual act. This law—as most of these laws are—is purposefully vague. Does To Kill a Mockingbird count, with a rape trial as the central focus of the plot? How about The Color Purple, or I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings?

Again—as is typical—the state department of education gave schools no guidance because the point of these laws is not education, but culture war.

You should read Exman’s entire piece but here’s the key section: