The best (and worst) public school systems in America

Parents, listen up: if you’re considering moving to another state for your career’s sake, you’ll probably want to think about how the area’s public school system compares to those in other states. And, if you’re thinking about packing up for Massachusetts, you’re about to get some good news: New research from WalletHub shows that it’s the state with the best public schools in 2018.

WalletHub analyzed all 50 states and D.C. in terms of “safety” and “quality,” then broke those down further in terms of 25 other factors before eventually giving each area a “total score” out of 100 points. The company used information from the U.S. Census Bureau, among many other sources.

The 10 states with the best public school systems

Here are the 10 states with the best overall scores:

1) Massachusetts (total score: 74.16)

2) New Jersey (total score: 67.09)

3) Connecticut (total score: 66.93)

4) New Hampshire (total score: 65.11)

5) Vermont (total score: 63.18)

6) Virginia (total score: 63.03)

7) Minnesota (total score: 60.34)

8) Maryland (total score: 57.82)

9) Wisconsin (total score: 57.59)

10) Colorado (total score: 57.45)

New Mexico came in last place (#51) with a total score of 31.53.

Here’s how the states stack up against each other

Check out the breakdown:

How important is a school’s caliber?

Theodore G. Zervas, Associate Professor of Education/M.A.T.C. Coordinator at North Park University, told WalletHub about how crucial a school’s caliber is in comparison to other aspects.

“While teachers and school resources are important they are not the main contributing factor to a child’s success. Rather a child’s family background and child’s support network outside of school are the most important factors in a student’s success. The more people behind the child the more likely he/she will succeed,” he said.