Okay, What Texans Don't Know

Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs walked the Earth at the same time and another 30 percent aren't sure, according to this survey of what Texans know and believe.

And over half, despite all the scientific evidence, don't think humans developed from earlier species.  Be afraid of this state.  Be very afraid.

Thanks to PR guru Karen Russell for pointing this one out to me.

What Texans Know

Came across this story that's really about what Texans think about their wacky gubernatorial race and issues such as gay marriage.  It also includes a few political knowledge questions (scroll to the very bottom under a subhead called pop quiz).  Or you can just read their single graph below:

We included a test of political knowledge in the poll, and most people did okay. For instance, 86 percent correctly identify Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the U.S. House, and 73 percent know that Republicans are the majority party in the Texas Senate. Only 31 percent know that the Texas Legislature meets every two years; 36 percent think that's an annual event.

So Texans do pretty well.  On the Nancy Pelosi question, for example, a national survey found 72 percent correctly identified Pelosi.  The methodological details of the Texas poll are scant, so while the Pew version is a multiple choice question, it's unclear how the Texas Pelosi question was worded.  So I may be comparing apples to oranges (or Texans to real people).
 
On how often the Texas Legislature meets, I don't blame people for getting it wrong.  If the Texas bunch is anything like my Georgia legislators, it sometimes seems they are always meeting.  And screwing up.