This is almost shooting-fish-in-a-barrel easy. Writing something about Camden, N.J., public schools being so dismal that the state had to take them over?

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, announced early last week the reasons for the takeover, and it’s hard to argue with the stats, provided by assorted news media. The Camden school district has 13,700 students. The graduation rate for the 2010-2011 school year was 56.9 percent. For the 2011-2012 school year, it dipped to 49.3 percent, a drop of 7 percentage points.