2014's States with the Best & Worst School Systems

News Release from WalletHub

With school resuming session and parents seeking quality education for their children, the leading personal finance social network WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2014's States with the Best & Worst School Systems.

Given the strong connection between educational attainment and income level, WalletHub compared the school systems among the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia to encourage parents to help their children realize their maximum potential. We used 12 key metrics, including dropout rates, test scores and bullying incident rates to assess the quality of education in each state. 

(Hawaii ranks 25th in “Education Output and Safety” and 36th in “School System Quality”)
 

• The District of Columbia’s dropout rate is 4 times higher than Iowa’s.
   
• The percentage of children between the ages of 6 and 17 who repeated one or more grades since starting kindergarten is almost 8 times higher in Louisiana than in Iowa, Utah or Minnesota.
   
• California’s pupil to teacher ratio is more than 2 times higher than Vermont’s.
   
• The percentage of public high school students who reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property at least one time during the previous 12 months is 2 times higher in Georgia than in Wisconsin.
   
• The percentage of people (25 and older) with a bachelor’s degree or higher is 3 times higher in the District of Columbia than in West Virginia.