Proof of Stupidity

   This blog / column is mostly dedicated to education and politics, so I thought I'd throw out my opinion of how to determine just how stupid our elected officials are. A news article appeared a couple days ago which detailed that our Oklahoma budget hole will be more like $900 million, instead of the governor predicted $600 million. Following the article, many readers' comments lamented that our governor and elected officials must really be stupid, to create the budget crisis we now have - and to miss the projected budget deficit by $300 million. In using the very small part of my brain dedicated to analytical research, I thought that none of the reader comments are valid or reliable - unless some sort of regression analysis is conducted which would indicate a predicted stupidity level among legislators and the governor's office. This blog / column is therefore dedicated to Dr. Keith Gaddie, Chair of the Political Science department at O.U., and all the other political science professors in Oklahoma. Maybe they can forward it to any political science student contemplating a doctorate degree in politics, and just do the required research. I will also forward it to Dr. Gregg Garn, Dean of the College of Education at O.U., for possible research into school related political issues. Of course, you now know this published piece will be partially "tongue in cheek" and partially serious, with just a touch of dry humor.
   The first thing I would do in researching the effects of stupidity upon the budgeting process and stupid bills passed by the legislature in recent years (and ineffective bills signed into law by our governor) - is to dust off the old "analytical research" book (720 pages). One could then determine which type of research methodology would be best in determining the effect that stupidity has on the budgeting process, and even the effect that stupidity has on stupid legislation, or the correlation coefficient which is calculated from data involving the dependent and independent variables. I'm probably beginning to lose a few readers by now, so I'll move along at a faster rate. One method that may be utilized to link any particular stupidity level (semi-stupid, really stupid, morbidly stupid) to the morbidly stupid budget deficit or to the fact that lawmakers don't know their math, is to consider a simple correlation coefficient. One may even link the stupidity level of lawmakers to the fact that Oklahoma teachers are among the lowest paid in the nation using this scientific methodology. Like I said before, my analytical research knowledge is also a little dusty, as I haven't conducted a real study since 2001, when I published my doctoral dissertation - An Examination of the Influence of Technology Inclusion in Determining the Outcome of School Bond Issue Elections in Oklahoma. Of course I've published hundreds of opinions since 2001, such as "uneducated and ignorant lawmakers are responsible for the giant budget holes of recent years" - but no real research.
   The two measured factors, the independent variable and the dependent variable, could be run through the simple correlation formula in order to determine the r (correlation coefficient), or the degree of the relationship between the variables. For instance, we could use the average IQ of all lawmakers (independent variable)  and correlate it with the depth of the budget hole(s) (dependent variable) over the past several years, we could then determine Pearson's r, or the degree of linear correlation. A high correlative degree degree might be .75 and indicate morbid stupidity and a low degree might be .1 and indicate mild stupidity. OK, I'm beginning to bore myself now, so I'll wrap it up.
   So let's say we determined the correlation coefficient between "level of average stupidity among elected lawmakers over the past several years" and "the depth of the state's budget hole over the past several years" is r = .99. We could then assume that stupidity is directly correlated with the size of the state budget hole. For instance, last years budget hole was $1.3 billion (the deepest ever recorded, not only for Oklahoma, but for all states), so, with a correlation coefficient of .99, we could reasonably assume that we had excessively stupid lawmakers in 2015. I'll go one step further (something statisticians should not do) and assume that stupid lawmakers have caused the giant budget holes. At this time, I will disclaim once again that I'm no statistics expert - so I might be wrong in my assumptions and calculations. I'd be willing to bet though, that if the r = .99 - lawmakers in Oklahoma really are stupid. Lastly, I'd like to remind everyone once again, that this blog is intended humor - but could be all to real...