After lengthy study and months of compiling data, the numbers are in. Missouri is smack dab in the middle of the nation when it comes to the smartest and dumbest states. Leave it to the Show Me state to fit the average. But that's not the most disturbing news. It seems that the state ranking puts Massachusetts - home of John Kerry and Teddy Kennedy - as the smartest state in the nation. That says much about the nation and the study that reported these findings.
A survey by Morgan Quitno Press annually ranks each state on a variety of categories such as per-pupil expenditures, high school graduation rates, class size, reading and math proficiency and pupil-teacher ratios in the schools. States are dropped in rank for high dropout rates and physical violence.
By that criteria, Missouri ranked 26th out of the 50 states - one behind North Carolina and one ahead of Delaware. At the bottom for the third straight year was New Mexico with a large immigrant population. Oh well, at least we remain ahead of Arkansas and Mississippi.
I have to take issue when New York and New Jersey both rank in the top six of the educational survey. We've all read about the horror stories of New York City schools with their high drop-out rate and high violence. So how in the world did New York finish so high in this annual survey?
Missouri, you may have noticed, tends to fall in the average category in many surveys regardless of their content. We're an extremely low tax state, which puts us above average in some surveys. But our roads are worse than most, which puts us near the bottom of some surveys.
To be real honest, given the sad state of affairs in some urban schools in Missouri, I think an average ranking may be some sort of accomplishment.
The top three in the smart state category are all from the East Coast. The bottom three states in the survey are all in the West. Draw from that any conclusion you like. If the choice for me is living in Arizona or Massachusetts, I'll take Arizona any day. That makes me dumb?
I take but one humble pleasure from this survey. Missouri is ranked far ahead of California. That just proves what I have thought privately for a long time - you must be dumb to live in California.