It's dropped a grade since 2005: analysis
(NEWSER) - Didn't do so great on that last vocabulary test? That's OK, there's a place in Congress for you. The current class of congressmembers speaks at a 10.6 grade level—down almost a full grade from 2005's 11.5 grade level on the Flesch-Kincaid scale. According to a political scientist at the Sunlight Foundation, the open government group that ran the numbers, one reason for the decline is the influx of new members who were elected in 2010, many of them with Tea Party support. "Particularly among the newest members of Congress, as you move out from the center and toward either end of the political spectrum, the grade level goes down, and that pattern is particularly pronounced on the right," he says. In easier-to-understand terms: All of the 10 members who speak at the lowest grade levels are Republicans, and nearly all are freshmen. More»
