PENNSYLVANIA (WHTM) — At the start of February, Governor Tom Wolf visited Erie to outline his plan for a funding increase in education that “will help create a brighter future for young people.” The governor’s plan calls for a $1.9 billion increase in education from pre-k through college.
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So where does Pennsylvania’s education system rank in the United States? WalletHub conducted research and compared all 50 states across 18 different metrics that examined key factors of a well-educated population: educational attainment, school quality and achievement gaps between genders and races.
Massachusetts came in as number one on the list of most educated states, with the top ranked spot in educational attainment and third ranked spot in quality of education. Pennsylvania, however, did not make the top 10.
Coming in at 30th on the list, Pennsylvania’s total score for all 18 metrics was roughly 32 points lower than Massachusetts. The commonwealth was ranked 28th in educational attainment and 29th in quality of education.
For educational attainment, there was 60 points that could be earned. State’s received points depending on share of adults 25 years and older with at least a high school diploma, with at least some college experience or an associate’s degree, with at least a bachelor’s degree,, or with at least a graduate or professional degree.
Forty points could have been earned for quality of education. Points could be earned for equality of school system, blue ribbon schools per capita, average quality of universities, enrolled student in top universities per capita, public high school graduation rate, and nine other metrics.
In a comparison between the median annual household income ranking and the overall education ranking, Pennsylvania was labeled as “low education level and high income.” Wyoming, Texas, California, and Alaska were labeled similar to Pennsylvania.
To see WalletHub’s full study, click here.