Comparing U.S. Education to Itself
When compared to the rest of the world, some say we’re far behind in education. Our science sucks, our math is elementary, and our language skills are as diverse as a Stephenie Meyer book signing. When compared to the other rest of the world, some taut American education as more robust than most countries on the planet, as we have a solid trajectory of nursery-through-post-graduate options for anyone who can muster their way through the necessary bureaucracy and financing.
But despite what any of them say… how do we compare to ourselves?
The U.S. Census Bureau recently released statistics reflecting the 50 states by percentage of residents aged 25-34 who hold a college degree. I instantly thought about the dozens of annoying under-employed Census representatives who’ve banged on my door over the past few months trying to get me to fess up to the ethnicity of my next-door neighbor who no longer lives there. Clearly, the Census is unable to track those who go unnacounted for–many of which do not hold college degrees–so I was instantly skeptical of the stats.
Instant cynicism aside, the results are thought-provoking. And if Statistics 101 taught me anything, a sampling is indicative of a larger population. The Chronicle of Higher Education, the ivory tower of all that is sacred and holy in academic news, prettified the numbers with a lovely interactive chart, which you can play with and view by clicking here.
Here’s a screenshot of my finagling with it:
Alright, let’s take a look at my sampling. Obviously, Washing DC with its inflation of political employment has a high college diploma rate. 63%! Can’t complain. And Massachussettes harbors the most colleges per capita in the entire country, so it’s not a surprise that over half the state population has completed college. However, these two regions are the only ones in the U.S. with more than 50% college graduation rate (in the 25-34 age bracket). Yikes.
The next state on the list–my German ancestor’s homeland of grand old prarie-laden North Dakota–comes barreling into third place, with a nearly 50% college-degree rate. I really dig this, because not only does NoDak also hold the most millionaires per capita in the U.S., but these education stats show that the tons of hard-working famers, engineers and other industrial workers way up north truly value education. Educated farmers in this state, we have. More cows than people? Perhaps…
California. An underwhelming 35.9% hold college degrees. And that’s only based on the people reached by the U.S. Census. It’s safe to say that California perhaps holds the largest amount of undocumented citizens, and it’s safer to say that these are the very same people who slip by Census workers. Regardless, this number is too low already. Thankfully, organizations like BetterGrads and others are seeking to change this.
And finally, just to report on the lowest number I came across… Arkansas came peeking in at 25.9%. Surely our states can provide college educations to more than half the population! One quarter is just not cutting it.
Take a stab at this map (literally) by visiting the interactive version at the Chronicle and drop pins on states you’d like to compare. Maybe you’ll be surprised, or perhaps dissapointed, at the results. Either way, this is a clear indicator that pro-college organizations have a lot of work to do to get those numbers up.
As for me, maybe I should stop being so hard on Census workers…
