November 16, 2004

smart state/dumb state

Here's a nice display of education state rankings, which says that Massachusetts is the smartest state in the union and New Mexico is the dumbest. It's an interesting list, but I'm not sure it says very much.

States were graded on a variety of factors based on how they compare to the national average. These included such positive attributes as per-pupil expenditures, public high school graduation rates, average class size, student reading and math proficiency, and pupil-teacher ratios.

Other than factoring in student reading and math proficiency, this "finding" seems more a rating of how well-entrenched the educational bureaucracy is rather than a reflection of actual educational performance. The asumption seems to be that if a state throws a lot of money at education, hires lots of teachers and graduates a lot of students, then the state is "smart." Sounds like bullshit to me.

But that's just MY humble opinion, Maybe I'm just jealous because Georgia ranked #38.