Steve's post below, What You Get In Trouble For Is Saying What Everybody Figures Is True, is about a German saying that Germany is becoming dumber, because of immigration from dumb countries, (lower education, lower average IQ) and demographics (dumb country people have larger families.) This unfamiliar idea has totally shocked everyone in the chattering classes: Migrants 'make Germany dumb' says central banker in astonishing outburst, By Allan Hall, Daily Mail, 12th June 2010.

All I can say is it doesn't astonish me.

The German politician in question is Thilo Sarrazin, and we wrote about him before:The Immigration Debate Opens Up (Maybe) In Europe.

And the reason this post is called Dumbing Down California, rather than Dumbing Down Germany is because the exact same thing is happening in the Golden State:

Historically, California has not been a state with a disproportionately large unskilled population, like Appalachia or parts of the South. As a result of immigration, however, by 2008 California had the least-educated labor force in the nation in terms of the share its workers without a high school education. This change has important implications for the state.

Among the changes in California:

• In 1970, California had the 7th most educated work force of the 50 states in terms of the share of its workers who had completed high school. By 2008 it ranked 50th, making it the least educated state. (Table 1a)
• Education in California has declined relative to other states. The percentage of Californians who have completed high school has increased since 1970; however, all other states made much more progress in improving their education levels; as a result, California has fallen behind the rest of the country. (Table 1b)
• The large relative decline in education in California is a direct result of immigration. Without immigrants, the share of California’s labor force that has completed high school would be above the national average.

That's from A State Transformed: Immigration and the New California, By Steven A. Camarota, Karen Jensenius, Center For Immigration Studies, June 2010 [PDF] All this is also stuff we've been saying for years.