Oil v. education: OECD's (and Thomas Friedman's) lame correlation

Thomas Friedman's NYT column, published in today's National Post (under the heading "The oil curse: and how we avoided it"), claims that the scholastic performance of students depends on the degree to which their countrys' economy is dependent on natural resource extraction.  As proof he cites an OECD study:

... O.E.C.D. has just come out with a fascinating little study mapping the correlation between performance on the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, exam — which every two years tests math, science and reading comprehension skills of 15-year-olds in 65 countries — and the total earnings on natural resources as a percentage of G.D.P. ... In short, how well do your high school kids do on math compared with how much oil you pump or how many diamonds you dig?

Conclusion:

... Oil and PISA don’t mix. So hold the oil, and pass the books.

That strikes me as an extremely lame correlation.  This fellow's criticism hits the nails (including Friedman's agenda) on the head:

... As the cases of Norway and Canada show, the random existence of a given resource under your soil does not in itself determine your country’s future success. 

...I think a better correlation might be quality of government versus average education level. ... much oil production comes from countries which have, shall we say, leadership issues. 

Here’s a case where someone takes a multivariate problem, and focus on the one variable for which he has an agenda. He doesn’t investigate the role of other variables. And the public? Yet another reason to believe how awful the oil industry is!

Or, as a commenter (Nevsky) at the National Post observed:

... Education is important; culture is decisive.

The profound power of free markets

In today’s ‘Post’ Terence Corcoran, in an 'editor's note', highlights the classic essay "I, Pencil". Leonard Read’s 1958 essay clearly and simply illustrates the power of free markets to spontaneously bring about the peaceful co-operation of thousands of different people around the world in the course of efficiently producing the humble pencil. All this, Mr. Corcoran reminds us, is in the absence of (or, more likely, in spite of) politicians and government bureaucrats.

Milton Friedman’s abbreviated version of the essay from his television series "Free To Choose" is on this YouTube video.

The "I, Pencil" essay, along with Friedman’s complete television series, should be a mandatory part of every school's curriculum, repeated at every level. Fat chance. Instead, the kids will get "social justice" studies and AlGore's "An Inconvenient Truth".