"Smart Politics", Dumb Conclusion

Link to December 15 Smart Politics post, "Minnesota Among Leaders in Adult Literacy and High School Graduation Rates Despite Middling Library Resources".

Apparently, in Minnesota, "public libraries per capita" is the clearest and perhaps only indicator of quality library service.

What kind of mushrooms are these folks putting in their omelets?

Excerpt: A new Smart Politics analysis of various education indicators finds that Minnesota ranks at or near the top of key education outputs, despite having only a moderate number of public libraries in the state.

With slightly more than 350 public libraries, the Gopher State ranks just 21st in the nation in terms of libraries per capita, at 1 public library for every 14,623 residents, according to U.S. Census Bureau 2008 population estimates and library data provided by PublicLibraries.com.