Bill Maher Blasts California Democrats as Mississippi Tops It 19%-7% in Black 4th-Grade Reading
Updated
Updated · Fox News · May 30
Bill Maher Blasts California Democrats as Mississippi Tops It 19%-7% in Black 4th-Grade Reading
1 articles · Updated · Fox News · May 30
Maher used Friday's "Real Time" to argue California Democrats are failing on core issues, saying Mississippi now beats California in education and Texas has moved ahead in key clean-energy measures.
Mississippi's edge was stark in 2024 NAEP data Maher cited: Black fourth-graders were 19% proficient in reading versus 7% in California, while California ranked 37th in fourth-grade reading and Mississippi ninth.
Texas also surpassed California in utility-scale solar output in 2025, generating 58,634 gigawatt-hours against California's 53,713, and Maher said it also leads on wind and energy storage.
Maher blamed California's lag on permitting rules, bureaucracy and interest-group politics, tying that critique to broader state failures from stalled rail projects to homelessness and weak school outcomes.
He opened by noting San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan's long-shot gubernatorial bid—4% in a new UC Berkeley poll—before also mocking retiring or defeated Republican critics of Donald Trump.
Can Mississippi’s lauded education model truly work in a state as demographically complex as California?
With ambitious goals but slow results, is California's model of governance fundamentally broken?
How did Texas, not California, become America's unlikely green energy king?