CNN’s Allan Chernoff needs math lesson.

This morning CNN’s Allan Chernoff reported about how Harvard is restructuring its tuition and fees for schooling. For those making $60,000 to $180,000 per year, the new fee will be 10% of the family's income. That's real nice. But the blooper came when Mr. Chernoff said that Harvard's new fees will “cost the school 22 million dollars a year. That is not even 2/3 of one percent of Harvard’s endowment” of $35 billion.

Hello! That's not even 2/3 of 1/10 of one percent of it. Figure it out:

1 percent of $35,000,000,000 is $350,000,000. That's 350 million dollars.

1/10 of that is 35 million dollars.

$22 million is less than 2/3 of that.

Maybe we should overlook it. After all, CNN is "America's most trusted" blah, blah, blah. And then there's all those billions and billions of dollars wasted - I mean, spent in Iraq, etc.

But according to CNN,"Chernoff ... is a career advisor for Brown University students. He was a former board member and secretary of the New York Financial Writers Association... Chernoff earned a bachelor of arts degree from Brown University." (Maybe he skipped the math classes.)

We need much better... Hey, CNN, you want to hire me to proofread?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update (Jan. 1, 2008): Steven Roy Goodman wrote in "The real story on Harvard's generosity" that Harvard could have spent a LOT more money. Check it out.