Last night, at the $15,000-per-dinner Democratic fundraiser at Gwyneth Paltrow’s house, President Obama once again said, “Math scores up. Reading scores up. College attendance up.

As I pointed out last week, that is false, false, false. Math scores are stagnant and reading scores are slightly worse than previous years, and the number of students attending college has declined the past two years. At the very best, Obama is citing outdated statistics. At worst, he’s just saying what he wants to be true.

This may not win “Lie of the Year” or be the biggest falsehood Obama delivers in his standard fund-raising speech, but it should matter. The president goes around from millionaire’s house to millionaire’s house, insisting that schools are getting better when the evidence suggests otherwise. His casual repeating of the claim, and the widespread acceptance of the assertion, exposes that so many of politicians’ pledges on schools, education, and children are absolute feel-good, substance-free horsepuckey — “I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside.”

If you really care about school performance, you check to see how they’re actually doing. If you really care about whether kids are learning, you acknowledge the problems honestly. If you really care, you admit when the approach isn’t working, or the evidence of success isn’t conclusive.

Barack Obama and Gwyneth Paltrow and all of those wealthy Obama donors don’t really care. They just want to feel good about themselves.

Life always seems cheerier at those high-dollar California fundraisers.