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My roommate wrote a thesis about this in college. I think a lot of it has to do with desegregation, the GI Bill, and post-WWII industrialization.
In short, there is a bigger middle class in the Midwest and Northeast because of more prominence of factories and good manufacturing jobs. It created a bigger tax base and allowed money to be poured into public school systems. The GI Bill got a lot of farmer kids into college and into professional jobs as well post war, and the communities demanded better schools.
In the south, the support for the public school system wasn't strong at all because of desegregation and middle class people not wanting their kids to go to school with poorer children or those of color. Because of this, the south never strongly supported the public school system like they did in the north and private schools and homeschooling for middle class children were much more prominent. Plus, add the smaller tax base since the middle class without the large number of quality factory jobs, it just meant the public school system in the south never get much traction.
Even today, there are a large amount of towns where a significant portion of middle class families send their kids to private schools, many of which are hugely subsidized by local churches. The result is that the public schools have more at risk kids and struggle. So when you compare statistics, the south comes out worse. The same thing happens in a lot of northern inner city schools, but the difference is that the middle class folks flee to the public school systems in the suburbs but in the south this phenomenon is more across the entire state.
Obviously, things are changing and there aren't a lot of differences from the suburbs of Atlanta compared to the suburbs of say Philadelphia today.
The media are partial responsible as well. Movies like
Deliverance" surely didn't help. When my daughter-in-law was moving to Georgia from Wisconsin in 1996 she was actually in tears about how she did not want to live like the people in Deliverance. I was shocked anybody could be so closed minded and ignorant. Now she is as Southern (except for her lingering accent) as a native bred Georgia Cracker and has the Fundamentalist mindset to prove it!
I am a northerner who recently moved to the South. Being an educator who hails from Minnesota, I was shocked at the state of the schools here. Public schools in Louisiana are in rough shape. I suppose there are many reasons for this, but public funding is surely one of those reasons. The government is cutting spending on public schools here and it shows.
I should add that our son is attending a public pre-K here, and I have been impressed with the passion the teachers put into their lessons. However, schools this well-run are a rarity in these parts. It is my sincere hope that things will change for the better in the nearest future, or we will strongly consider moving from here.
I have also noticed that there is a more noticeable distinction between the well-off and the poor here in the South. Much of that is probably just my perception, but I have heard similar comments from other northerners here. This might be connected with the awful state of some schools as well.
Grew up in Ohio, educated in Ohio's public schools (urban Toledo), went to college in Ohio and then spent the last 9 years in South Carolina teaching. The bad rap is earned trust me. The schools that are decent are made up mostly of transplants who moved into the developing suburbs of the metro areas (see Fort Mill, SC / Lexington, SC / Mount Pleasant, SC / Cary, NC ). The biggest difference in the rural south. Rural northern schools provide a pretty decent education....or at least they use to, that may change soon enough at the rate things are going. Rural south is almost 3rd world still in 2012. I drove from Greenville, SC to Florence, SC over Labor Day weekend 2011 to visit a buddy of mine from college and as soon as I got off I-20 east of Columbia it felt like I had left civilized society.
Remember, the rural south is a culture that did not need education to survive for well..... generations. That mentality continues to this day sadly. the black population you have to remember was legally denied formal education until well the 1970s. Tough to play catch up in a matter of 4 decades.
The south as a whole should not be labeled uneducated but the rural portion definitely. Travel up and down I-95 sometime in South Carolina and you'll see what I mean and agree with me.
We think of Mississippi as having a poor education system, and either Alabama or Arkansas join it at the bottom.
Yet checking THIS list--//www.city-data.com/top52.html--it would seem California's a LOT worse off.
Don't want to start a flame war but since you asked, I think it comes down to brainpower. Fewer highly rated universities than other regions. (Though admittedly, there are some great ones like UNC, Duke, Vandy, Emory, and maybe Rice.) Also, the Southern lifestyle, Southern values, and the region itself just doesn't do much to raise America's status in the world-- it isn't known for producing anything that is both orginal and cutting edge. Oil and cotton but, those are both commodities. Hence, the bad rap.
Poverty 21.1 %
Food Insecurity 27.7 %
School Paddling yes - at a very high rate
Black Population 37.0 %
Hispanic Population 2.0 %
gun laws very few restrictions on ownership, concealed carry permitted with license
jail population 391 per 100,000 population
prison population 686 per 100,000 population
murder rate 7.0 per 100,000 population
death penalty yes
rural population 47.1 %
access to healthcare ranks 51 out of 51 for access and services
abstinence-only education yes
teen birth rate 55 per 1000
abortion clinics only 1 in the entire state (federal litigation is pending that might close it)
high school graduates 80.4 %
bachelor degree or higher 19.6 %
advanced degrees 7.1 %
unemployment rate 9.1 % (August 2012)
politics Republican - McCain won 79% of the vote, Republican governor
disasters #2 in tornadoes, hurricanes - 32 since 1947
States with good schools Massachusetts
Poverty 15 %
Food Insecurity 18.1 %
Black Population 6.0 %
Hispanic Population 9.6 %
Gun laws licenses with safety course required, one of the toughest gun control laws in
the US
jail population 197 per 100,000 population
prison population 200 per 100,000 population
murder rate 3.2 per 100,000 population
death penalty no
rural population 16 %
access to health care universal thanks to Mitt Romney, services are excellent
abstinence-only education no, sex education is not required, but local school boards decide and most do
have comprehensive sex education programs
teen birth rate 17.1 per 1000
abortion clinics numerous
high school graduates 89 %
bachelor degree or higher 38.4 %
advanced degrees 16.4 %
unemployment rate 6.3 % (August 2012)
politics Democratic, went to Obama, currently in the Obama camp, Democratic
governor
disasters not many - #32 in tornadoes, hurricanes 10 since 1954
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