Where you live can significantly change the quality of your education, and in a new WalletHub report, some states saw far better marks than others.
Many states also struggled with high dropout rates as a result of lackluster funding and instructor attention.
According to WalletHub, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey and Wisconsin were the top states for school systems. At the bottom were states that struggled more with funding: New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona, Alaska and Louisiana.
The report looked at several metrics, including school performance, funding, safety, instructor credentials and class size across the 50 states.
But for the dropout rate specifically, Idaho, Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico and the District of Columbia all tied for the highest percentage of dropouts.
Other schools that generally scored better on the other metrics also saw low dropout rates. At the top of the list of lowest rates were West Virginia, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Massachusetts.
"Getting enough funding is essential for a productive school system, but simply having more money doesn't guarantee success," WalletHub analyst Cassandra Happe said in the report. "How funds are applied also plays a big role in how good a school system is, as does the quality of educators, other professionals and the curriculum. In addition, schools need to focus not just on test scores but also on making sure that students feel safe, comfortable and cared for."
The schools that tended to score better in the WalletHub report had some of the best test scores and generally may reflect a more affluent community.
Massachusetts, for example, has the highest share of students in the country who received a score of 3 or better on an AP exam. And Connecticut had the best ACT scores in the country.
When it comes to both test scores and the dropout rates of a school system or even a state, Gerard Robinson, a public policy professor at the University of Virginia said it straight: "Money matters."
"Anyone who tells you otherwise is being dishonest or coy," Robinson said in the report. "Even when we acknowledge per-pupil spending matters to school quality the rationale for doing so is often incomplete. How? By focusing attention on one side of the financial ledger at the expense of the other."
Christopher Lubienski, an education professor at Indiana University Bloomington said ultimately, though, there are many factors outside of the school system itself that matter in terms of student success.
"Despite what we might hope, school is only a relatively small part of the equation, and in-classroom factors even less," Lubienski said in the report. "That said, school factors are a unique area where policy can have a more direct impact. That is, it is hard for policymakers to leverage change in family structure, parenting practices, family support for learning, etc. But they can bring in better teaching and curricula."
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