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America's most and least educated cities

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N

N.Domixis

Banned
wienke said:
Yeah I would say there's a strong correlation between the least educated places in Texas with the largest Hispanic populations. The Valley, El Paso, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi are all massive Hispanic population centers. If anything I'm reading this list thinking that there's a major problem with education in the Hispanic population that needs to be addressed. Although I also wonder if the mostly white cities of the panhandle and West Texas like Odessa/Midland, Lubbock, and Amarillo would rank just as low.

The entire golden triangle (Port Arthur-Beaumont-Orange) is probably one of the poorest, if not the poorest, part of the state despite the oil and gas jobs so I'm not surprised by the ranking. I used to dread traveling there for work because it felt like that whole area missed out on whatever prosperity Texas enjoyed. The Valley, by contrast and although the least educated, is really nice.

Killeen-Temple is that huge army base and all the fun parts you would have when you build a community based on catering to the needs of a rank and file soldier. Kinda reminds me of Lawton, OK.
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This is weird, immigrant parents come into the us because of better opportunities but it seems like its being wasted.
 
A

Aeonin

Member
My family comes from and has subsequently lived in all the bottom five places. I grew up in Bakersfield. All those cities feel so different from when I moved to Aurora, CO. Now I know why. Ha-ha. Note that I moved there to get my degree. Near impossible to get my degree in Bakersfield at what was my family's income level (poor).
 
S

Slo

Member
N.Domixis said:
This is weird, immigrant parents come into the us because of better opportunities but it seems like its being wasted.
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Not necessarily. It's the children of immigrants who will be seeing the benefits of more educational opportunities. People generally aren't sneaking across the border and immediately enrolling in grad school.
 
M

Moon Patrol Pilot

Member
Dash_Riprock said:
LOL Texas.
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No kidding, Austin should be higher than #9!

wienke said:
Yeah I would say there's a strong correlation between the least educated places in Texas with the largest Hispanic populations. The Valley, El Paso, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi are all massive Hispanic population centers. If anything I'm reading this list thinking that there's a major problem with education in the Hispanic population that needs to be addressed. Although I also wonder if the mostly white cities of the panhandle and West Texas like Odessa/Midland, Lubbock, and Amarillo would rank just as low.

The entire golden triangle (Port Arthur-Beaumont-Orange) is probably one of the poorest, if not the poorest, part of the state despite the oil and gas jobs so I'm not surprised by the ranking. I used to dread traveling there for work because it felt like that whole area missed out on whatever prosperity Texas enjoyed. The Valley, by contrast and although the least educated, is really nice.

Killeen-Temple is that huge army base and all the fun parts you would have when you build a community based on catering to the needs of a rank and file soldier. Kinda reminds me of Lawton, OK.
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But seriously, this about sums up why the Valley is at the bottom. It's seems like this is common with border cities.
 
C

Colonel Mustard

Banned
RageWaffles said:
Thanks to the late Senator Byrd, a small part of WV gets counted as the second most educated area of the US.


(I grew up in the D.C. metro area part of WV and am feeling a weird bit of pride right now.)
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On the other hand...

134) Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH

Where I'm from is really close to the bottom...derrr...
 
B

Blueliner

Banned
Well being in at least on of the top 10 is good. However, I can confirm that educated does not equal smart nor common sense in my city.
 
C

Coolluck

Member
Slo said:
Not necessarily. It's the children of immigrants who will be seeing the benefits of more educational opportunities. People generally aren't sneaking across the border and immediately enrolling in grad school.
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Yeah, El Paso has (or at least had as of very recently) a negative net migration rate as it is experiencing a brain drain because of the incredibly low wages.
 
S

sphinx

the piano man
calling Brownsville and Mcallen, TX "cities" is a stretch.

there's nothing there but one big highway with hotels, several chain restaurants like Denny's, Red Lobster, etc, and a couple of shopping malls.

drive 15~20 minutes in either direction of said highway and you are already somewhere else.
 
P

Poeton

Member
sphinx said:
calling Brownsville and Mcallen, TX "cities" is a stretch.

there's nothing there but one big highway with hotels, several chain restaurants like Denny's, Red Lobster, etc, and a couple of shopping malls.

drive 15~20 minutes in either direction of said highway and you are already somewhere else.
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Brownsville is one of the largest cities in the country without an interstate connecting it to the rest of the country.

With that being said I have a friend who just graduated from college who's from there and he is loathed to go back.
 
N

Nelo Ice

Banned
LucidMomentum said:
You have no idea. The oil prices / drought have just destroyed many of those towns on the list.



Yeah, Bakersfield is not somewhere I'd recommend people moving too unless they have a great job lined up or need cheap housing close to the better parts of California.

As to everyone wondering why those Central California states are so uneducated, it's because most if not all of them have two major industries - agriculture and oil.

For the longest time, simply having two hands and an able body meant you could find high paying jobs, either as a welder or a technician or as manual labor, etc. We also have huge problems with Meth and our police force is unbelievably high on the list of unnecessary shootings.

Hell I still find people out of a job who go to a trade school only to find themselves out of the next job they trained for when the economy dips.

It's very cyclical and very bleak. Not to mention the heavy GOP influence on those cities. Read Mean Justice to see a snapshot of how these places came to be.
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I spent all my high school years there and I'm a minority. Was pure misery after growing up in SoCal and the bay previously. Aside from the uneducated it also explains all the racism I dealt with. And yeah only reason I was there was due to cheap housing since my dad lost his job.
 
Sequence Six

Sequence Six

Member
peaceiscloser said:
8 Provo Orem UT
32 Salt Lake City UT

I live about half way between these two cities but I think i may identify more with Provo. So should I clock myself half way between the two?
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Probably just depends which county you're in, honestly.

Also all 3 Utah population centers are in the top 65, not bad, not bad
 
B

Bgamer90

Banned
#49 (Buffalo area) -- Many solid schools here. Still a pretty segregated area but it seems that millennials are changing that.
 
Y

Yaboosh

Super Sleuth
Dreadnought said:
I'm honestly surprised Tallahassee is so far up there
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I imagine it is the combination of being an absolutely massive college town with the fact that it is the state capital of one of the most populous states. There is much more reason for grads to stick around there than lots of other college towns.


Suck it Gainesville.
 
L

lenovox1

Member
Sou Da said:
Yeah I'm not suprised to see Miami down there.
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You don't need a two year degree to work in the hospitality and nightlife industries. Just the right combination of experience, connections, talent/personality type.

It's why Las Vegas is so low despite being a medical center.
 
E

Epsilon-delta

Banned
LiveFromKyoto said:
Why is California so dumb?
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A quarter of entering freshmen at the University of California weren’t ready for college level math or writing, the analyst’s office concluded. At UC Merced, the proportion was nearly two-thirds.

The problem’s much worse at the 23-campus California State University. Systemwide, more than half the incoming freshmen needed remedial writing help. At Cal State’s Dominguez Hills and Los Angeles campuses, 9 of 10 incoming freshmen needed that kind of help with writing and math.
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http://www.scpr.org/blogs/education...ogram-tries-make-dent-states-college-remedia/

And to think most of these incoming freshman came in with high GPAs.
 
Clockwork5

Clockwork5

Member
The Kansas side of the metro is really saving Kansas City in this ranking. The KCMO school district has been on the brink of dissolving for quite some time. They just closed like a third of the schools in the district a few years back.
 
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