Massachusetts May Be The Smartest State, But We’re 10th Worst At This
Here's a shocker, Berkshire County friends and neighbors. You can find tons of articles all over the internet about how Massachusetts is home to some of the greatest schools IN THE WORLD.
But here's something you may not be aware of. There's one aspect concerning education in which Massachusetts fares quite poorly. Any guesses? When it comes to racial equality in education, the Bay State has some catching up to do.
The personal-finance experts at WalletHub recently published a report on 2023's Best States for Racial Equality in Education and some of the highlights are very interesting. For instance, according to WalletHub:
A recent study found that school districts that have a high concentration of white students receive $23 billion more per year in funding than those that have a high concentration of non-white students. Lower funding can lead to lower quality education, which can affect not only a person’s income trajectory but also their career trajectory for the rest of their life.
I was not aware of that statistic, so shame on me. To come up with their findings, the WalletHub team compared all 50 states in 6 key metrics. WalletHub's data compares the difference between white and black Americans in many areas such as test scores, graduation rates, college degrees, etc.
Sadly, Massachusetts ranked anywhere from average to well-below average in most of the metrics looked at which led to Massachusetts being ranked at #41 on the list. Here are the top 10 for 2023's Best States for Racial Equality in Education according to WalletHub:
- New Mexico
- Wyoming
- West Virginia
- Oregon
- Vermont
- Hawaii
- Kentucky
- Texas
- Arizona
- Oklahoma
And since you're read this far, we might as well show you the other end of the spectrum. Here are the 5 worst states according to WalletHub:
- Wisconsin
- Minnesota
- Connecticut
- New York
- Nebraska
Visit WalletHub's website here for more on the study and full rankings on all 50 states. As I mentioned earlier in this article, it makes for very interesting reading.
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