JACKSON — Mississippi claims the top spot as the least educated state in the country in a new study out just two weeks after Gov. Phil Bryant proclaimed that Mississippi’s educational system “is clearly better than it has ever been before” in his final State of the State Address on Jan. 9.
In assessing state rankings, personal-finance website WalletHub considered the following factors: educational attainment, school quality, and achievement gaps by race and gender.
Mississippi snagged the title of least educated thanks to its poor performance in several categories. Among U.S. states, Mississippi is third lowest in the percent of its population with a high school diploma at 83.4 percent; fifth lowest in percent with some college experience or an associate’s degree at 53 percent; the second lowest with a bachelor’s degree at 21.3 percent; and the fourth lowest with a graduate or professional degree at just 8 percent.
The state had the highest gender gap nationwide in educational achievement and lands right near the middle for racial achievement gap at No. 24. It ranks 40th in university quality.
Mississippi is dead last in one category: Only 6.5 percent of high-school students scored 3 or higher on advancement placement exams.
Just behind Mississippi, in order, are West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama. On the flip side, Massachusetts topped the list of most educated states.
Bryant’s Rosy, Inaccurate Statements on Education
The data conflict with the rosy picture Bryant painted in his address, when he incorrectly claimed Mississippi is fourth in the nation for teachers earning National Board Certification (Mississippi is seventh), touted the fact that 93 percent of third graders passed the state’s language arts assessment (when he incorrectly conflated “passing” with “proficiency”),” and pointed to the state’s rising graduation rate.
Even though Mississippi’s high- school graduation rate has risen three years in a row to 84 percent, it still lags behind states like Alabama, which had an 87-percent graduation rate in 2017, and West Virginia, whose graduation rate rose to more than 89 percent in 2016.
“The proverbial critics would have you believe that one is a declining state whose people are suffering mightily,” Bryant said in the speech. “They search for problems as if there is a reward for finding them.”
He also criticized the tendency for news organizations to take “any study, from any source, that labels Mississippi last or least” and “(blast it) across the front page.”
