America’s Most Educated
America, the land of the free…..and the uneducated? We once sat at the top when it came to education, from elementary school through college, but now? Now we’re going in the opposite direction. Politicians are taking away money from education, school standards are being lowered, creativity is being taken out of the classroom….what kind of society will this leave us with?
Did you know that the United States now ranks 27th for education? We were ranked at 6th placed in 1990 and our ranking has been sinking ever since. A quote from the article states “US investments in healthcare and education haven’t changed much in the last three decades — and it’s putting the country far behind its peers.”
This casts a shadow on the education system of America so why don’t we take a look within just our nation and see where the education discrepancies lie. Which cities and states are more educated? Which areas are less educated and need more funding and better teachers? While it may not be a tough guess as to the areas that are ranked at the bottom for education, you may be surprised at the areas you don’t see sitting at the top. Keep in mind that these rankings are based on 4 factors — the percent of people who have less than a high school diploma, the percent of high school graduates, the percent with some college, and the percent with a bachelor’s degree or more — so these rankings are based on degree attainment, rather than IQ results.
Let’s start with the less surprising ones, the least educated cities in the United States. Are you surprised by any of the cities that landed in the top (er, bottom?) Southern states are known to be behind in education requirements when compared to the Northeast or Western parts of the country, but this information shows that educated people aren’t even interested in living in these areas and have moved on to other parts of the country, most likely looking for more opportunities and bigger companies to work for.
You’ll see a lot of the same cities also landed on the list of the top 10 cities with the most people with less than a high school diploma, of which Texas and parts of Southern California each have quite a few of.
Now for the flip side, the MOST educated cities in the United States! Like I mentioned above, you may be surprised at the cities that made this list. No large cities made the list, but there is a such a diverse group of people in cities with all sorts of levels of education that the educated and un-educated seems to cancel each other out when it came to ranking them for this graphic.
Colorado, and surprisingly Montana, come out on top for the states with the most educated cities in them. Does this show that educated people are moving out of big coastal cities and looking for a simpler, happier life in the midwest where they have plenty of room to themselves, and lots of nature to enjoy? What do you think? And how would you rank your own city on a scale of least to most educated?