Massachusetts is America's Smartest State (New Bedford, Fall River: ski resorts, section 8, public schools)

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by scorpio516

There are pockets though.
I was in a town last night in Franklin county that 70% of the adults have at least a bachelor's.

Sure. There are small pockets everywhere. The whole county is 71,000. County-wide is 38.8% which is pretty good by national standards. Lots of college and university jobs. I see Shutesbury at 73.8%. Population 1,700. Down here in the economic backwater of the South Coast, Mattapoisett and Marion have pretty good education demographics but they’re towns of 5,000 to 6,000. If you included summer home owners, they would be quite high.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Right sparky. Because of course the infrastructure, education facilities, living conditions and general QOL are magnitudes better in Fall River or Athol than Bumf#$%, WV. MAGNITUDES.

Fall River schools are 100% funded by the state through the cherry sheet. The same municipal finance math as New Bedford. Plus the state funded vocational school where the teachers are state employees. That funding creates educational opportunities that simply aren’t available in West Virginia. That’s true statewide.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Right sparky. Because of course the infrastructure, education facilities, living conditions and general QOL are magnitudes better in Fall River or Athol than Bumf#$%, WV. MAGNITUDES.

Having gone to public schools in Louisiana (#48, in front of only MS and WV), I would 100% choose a random MA school, even in Fall River or Athol over a random school in LA. There are a few magnet schools that are good, but beyond that regular public education is terrible. Anyone who can either gets their kids into a magnet program or, more commonly, sends their kids to private schools.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

Having gone to public schools in Louisiana (#48, in front of only MS and WV), I would 100% choose a random MA school, even in Fall River or Athol over a random school in LA. There are a few magnet schools that are good, but beyond that regular public education is terrible. Anyone who can either gets their kids into a magnet program or, more commonly, sends their kids to private schools.

Easy to say when you never attended a Fall River school. What is the average outcome of a Durfee High student vs. wherever you graduated from in LA?

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

Having gone to public schools in Louisiana (#48, in front of only MS and WV), I would 100% choose a random MA school, even in Fall River or Athol over a random school in LA. There are a few magnet schools that are good, but beyond that regular public education is terrible. Anyone who can either gets their kids into a magnet program or, more commonly, sends their kids to private schools.

Absolutely. I'm sure some trolls will complain and whine and b*tch about that claim, but ignore function exists for morons. Yes, even in the smartest state there are morons, as anyone reading here regularly can attest.

I sometimes think people here don't travel this country, but as someone who does, and gets into the back country areas (putting a nice spin on it), I don't think people get how much nicer even the most isolated Quabbin towns, or the most run down areas of the north central Rte 2 region are than much of the South and rural mid Atlantic regions. Magnitudes nicer is the correct way of putting it.

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by timberline742

Absolutely. I'm sure some trolls will complain and whine and b*tch about that claim, but ignore function exists for morons. Yes, even in the smartest state there are morons, as anyone reading here regularly can attest.

I sometimes think people here don't travel this country, but as someone who does, and gets into the back country areas (putting a nice spin on it), I don't think people get how much nicer even the most isolated Quabbin towns, or the most run down areas of the north central Rte 2 region are than much of the South and rural mid Atlantic regions. Magnitudes nicer is the correct way of putting it.

Wow. Angry much ?

[massnative71]

If sparky won't venture away from Belmont (or the ritzy East Side of Providence where he's currently living), perhaps he should read the story of "Chevy Van Pickup". Could wake up to a harsh reality...

Behind the scenic landscapes, on the backroads aof rural Massachusetts, is a world of poverty and abuse, violence and desperation

http://www.armstrongjournalism.com/w...Van-Pickup.pdf

[msRB311]

Get ready for the demise of all schools in the United States. Keep living in denial too.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Easy to say when you never attended a Fall River school. What is the average outcome of a Durfee High student vs. wherever you graduated from in LA?

The old “you can’t know” argument. I have seen schools here and there, have you? For most things I have to rely on data, though:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...-compares.html

The NY TIMES compared individual districts and the district I attended in LA, East Baton Rouge Parish, rates as 1.4 grades below average. Fall River rates as only 0.3 grades below average. Even the worst in MA I can find (Lawrence, MA) is only 0.7 grades below average.

So no, I didn’t go to Fall River Schools, but if I had it would have been an improvement. Luckily my dad got transferred and I didn’t have to stay in EBRP schools.

It’s like the idea of a distribution is foreign. Somewhere being smarter doesn’t mean that everyone there is smarter, just that the average is higher. There is almost always some overlap. The worst school in MA is worse than the best school in LA. The average school in MA is a lot better than the average school in LA. The best school in MA is better than the best school in LA. The worst school in LA is a lot worse than the worst school in MA.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Easy to say when you never attended a Fall River school. What is the average outcome of a Durfee High student vs. wherever you graduated from in LA?

Here's the 2022 top-10 at Durfee. I see Northeastern, Brown, George Washington, etc. With good parenting, there is plenty of educational opportunity in the failed cities. I realize you need to constantly point to the worst hell holes in Massachusetts and Rhode Island to deflect your inferiority complex but there are smart kids who are intellectually engaged and do their schoolwork who have excellent outcomes in those places. I'd guess your class rank and SAT scores are nothing like theirs. I'm from a very socioeconomically mixed town. The top-20% of my graduating class did very well. They were generally a bit brighter than average and had good parenting. We had a USMC Brigadier General, a bunch of physicians, some university profs, and lots of more generic white collar professionals. Like any school, the kids who do sports, activities, and AP classes in a New Bedford or a Fall River generally hang out together in a reinforcing social group have a good outcome.



https://www.heraldnews.com/story/new...22/7471775001/


As a matter of public policy, you fund public schools in those places to present that educational opportunity.