Public school systems vary widely and quality is often a question of funding. For 2017 in Oklahoma, over half of the total annual budget goes to education and of that ($3.3 billion) 71 percent goes to common education.
Personal finance website WalletHub released today an in-depth analysis of public school systems and Oklahoma ranked 18 (1=Best).
In order to determine the best school systems in America, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 21 key measures of quality and safety.
The data set ranges from pupil-teacher ratio to dropout rate to median standardized-test scores. The full report is available online here 2017’s States with the Best & Worst School Systems and Oklahoma received a total score of 55.22 with a quality score of 37 and safety score of 3.
Public elementary and secondary education dollars traditionally flow from three sources: the federal, state and local governments. According to EdCentral, states contribute nearly as much as local governments, while the federal government supplies the smallest share of the total. Some researchers have found that more resources — or taxes paid by residents — typically result in better school-system performance.
Best vs. Worst
• Iowa has the lowest dropout rate, 9.2 percent, which is 3.4 times lower than in the District of Columbia, registering the highest at 31.5 percent.
• Vermont has the lowest pupil-teacher ratio, 10.55, which is 2.2 times lower than in California, registering the highest at 23.58.
• Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin share the highest median SAT score, 613.33, which is 1.5 times higher than in the District of Columbia, registering the lowest at 396.67.
• Massachusetts has the lowest share of high school students who reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property, 4.06 percent, which is 2.6 times lower than in Arkansas, registering the highest at 10.60 percent.
• The District of Columbia has the lowest share of high school students who were bullied online, 7.86 percent, which is 2.7 times lower than in Idaho, registering the highest at 21.08 percent.
Click here for the study from WalletHub.