Most & Least Educated States In America 2020’s

Is getting a good education necessary in life? A poll conducted by WGBH News/Abt Associates of 1,002 adults revealed four in 10 under 40, a demographic that includes college age and recent grads, believe college is worth attending, with only about one-third feeling that way strongly. However, among adults over 40, seven in 10 feel that college is worth the investment and the majority of those 50 also felt the same way.

Not graduating from college could mean $1 million dollars in missed lifetime earrings. Graduate degrees usually come with wage premiums that are worth thousands of dollars for certain majors such as physical sciences $32,000, this comes from a study by Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

With BLS data showing a correlation between higher education levels, higher income and lower unemployment rates, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2020's Most & Least Educated States in America.

In order to determine where the most educated Americans live, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 18 key metrics. The data set ranges from share of adults aged 25 and older with at least a high school diploma to average university quality to gender gap in educational attainment.

Key Stats

• Massachusetts has the highest school system rating, 21.10 percent, which is 16.2 times higher than in Mississippi, the state with one of the lowest at 1.30 percent.
• Massachusetts has the highest share of bachelor’s degree holders aged 25 and older, 42.90 percent, which is 2.1 times higher than in West Virginia, the state with the lowest at 20.20 percent.
• Vermont has the lowest racial gap in educational attainment, with the share of blacks aged 25 and older holding a bachelor’s degree at 28.56 percent and 22.83 percent for their white counterparts, a difference of 5.74 percent favoring blacks.

Expert Commentary

What are the most effective ways to combat “brain drain” across state borders?

“We see brain drain not only across state borders but away from rural areas as well,” said Janelle M. Johnson, PhD, State University of Denver. “The lack of economic opportunities close to home leave students with little choice other than to leave their communities. Improving the quality of education without providing places where graduates can find desirable jobs leaves us back where we started. I work with future teachers who would love to teach in rural schools but they can’t afford to live there. We need to financially incentivize teaching in general, and especially in hard-to-serve areas. We may need to restructure teaching loads and school schedules to accommodate more creative school staffing.”

“The bottom line is that young people - particularly college graduates - seek great jobs with a high quality of life, often in urban areas that offer diversity, nightlife, public transportation, recreation, and a vibrant social scene,” said Loren John Rullman, PhD, Grand Valley State University. “Because they often carry higher college loan burdens than previous generations, graduates are especially attracted to companies that offer loan payback programs, and to cities that offer low and no-cost amenities, services, and cultural activities. The job itself matters, of course, but today’s young people increasingly prize experiences and personal time as much as money. It’s about placemaking - those states and cities that offer the right mix will be the most attractive areas to live and work.”

To what extent should states consider education policy as part of a broader economic development strategy?

“States need to broaden access to high-quality education to strengthen their economies, especially as we look to the demographic projections of the future,” said Johnson, PhD, State University of Denver. “Top tier students already have excellent academic opportunities, but students from communities underrepresented in academic and professional realms are tracked into classes that are far less engaging. Students who are part of the college pipeline maximize their courseloads with AP and honors classes, though college professors will often express that they prefer students who take those courses at the university. Much of the most innovative coursework we see, in areas like engineering and robotics, occurs in Career and Technical courses which are unfortunately still stigmatized. The problems we face do not exist in disciplinary siloes, yet we continue to teach in isolated siloes at the secondary and university levels.”

“Investment in education is too often thought of as a spending decision rather than the public policy decision that it is,” said Rullman, PhD, Grand Valley State University. “A college degree, for example, is a good investment for individuals and a good investment for states. Virtually all studies show that college graduates earn as much as 75% more than high school graduates and have more job stability over their lifetimes. As we saw with Amazon’s recent HQ2 location decision, companies want to locate in states with a highly educated workforce; in most states, job openings that require post-secondary job skills are growing more quickly than those which do not. That is why cities like Kalamazoo, MI; New Haven, CT; and Seattle, WA have begun offering free or reduced college options to their residents. They know what states too often forget - if we invest in education, incomes grow, tax revenues increase, innovation flourishes, and economic productivity rises.”

To view the full report and your state’s rank, please visit:

https://wallethub.com/edu/most-educated-states/31075/