Bad numbers

These numbers are appalling. The maximum scores are 800 in each category; the overall averages in each category are around 500, barely over 60% of the possible total. This should be considered a national disgrace, and should place the issue at the top of the critical priorities for the nation, instead of so much hot air and hate being spewed about the Second Amendment, purported death panels and the onrush of socialism.

Consider the average black score in the reading category is 100 points less than the average white score; same 100 points in writing; and 160 points than the average Asian score in Math.

Hispanic numbers are marginally better (26, 35, 27 points) than black numbers. Curiously, they exclude Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans, which raises two questions: why? and where are those numbers?

Another story in today's Journal, about a baseball player, contained a parallel number: Torii Hunter grew up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, as did his half-brother.

Mr. Hunter and Mr. Thurman both graduated from high school, but many of their peers did not. The state's high-school graduation rate for black males is 61%, but only 29% of black students who start high school in Pine Bluff are considered college-ready when they leave, according to Marcus Winters, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

29% of black high school graduates are ready for college; what are the other 71% ready for?