Mon, Jun 7, 2004 1:45pm ET

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O'Reilly wrong about black students' dropout rate

Arguing that former President Bill Clinton failed to improve secondary education for African Americans, FOX News Channel host Bill O'Reilly told a June 3 guest, "I see a worse black student dropout rate in 2000 than in '92." But the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) sees it differently; NCES reported in 2003 that the dropout rate for black students ages 16 to 24 actually declined during the Clinton presidency.

From the June 3 edition of FOX News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: Well, I look at eight years ... of Clinton-Gore and I see a worse black student dropout rate in 2000 than in '92. So it's all rhetoric to me.

NCES's 2003 annual report on education, "The Condition of Education 2003," shows that dropout rate for black students was 13.7 percent in 1992 and 13.1 percent in 2000. The dropout rate declined even further to 10.9 percent in 2001, according to the same report.

STATUS DROPOUTS: Dropout rates of 16- to 24-year-olds, by race/ethnicity: October 1972-2001
STATUS DROPOUTS: Dropout rates of 16- to 24-year-olds, by race/ethnicity: October 1972-2001
SOURCE: U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Current Population Survey (CPS), October 1972-2001.

—G.W.

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