Source: WalletHub

 

It's not good news ahead of a new school year. Personal finance website WalletHub ranks our state as having the 5th-worst school system in the country.

WalletHub compared the quality of education in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia by analyzing 13 key metrics, including pupil-teacher radio, dropout rates, standardized test scores and bullying incidents rates.

Here are some of our stats, with 1 being the best and 25 being average:

30th - Bullying Incidents Rate
48th - Math Test Score
48th - Reading Test Score
31st - Pupil-Teacher Ratio
44th - Dropout Rate
33rd - School Safety
19th - Average SAT Score

Analyst Jill Gonzalez told KEEL News there were high points for us, though.

"First of all, just the presence of public schools. We looked at the schools in the top 700 Best U.S. Schools according to U.S. News. Louisiana ranked 30th there. A little over 1% of the entire list came from the state of Louisiana, but it ranked 16th for its remote learning opportunities from online public schools," Gonzalez said. "So 16th is obviously well above average, and I hope that can really influence the dropout rate because a lot of kids are dropping out just because these brick and mortar learning institutions are not for them."

As far as cyberbullying incidents, Louisiana ranked in the top half of the list. Gonzalez said about 17% of students reported cyberbullying.

"It sounds high, but unfortunately, a lot of other states are reaching 20%, maybe a little bit more than that," Gonzalez said. "The youth incarceration rate is what pulled Louisiana farther down into the rankings. It's about 383 incarcerated youths per 100,000, and that ranked 45th."

The best states, from first through fifth, were Massachusetts, Colorado, New Jersey, Wisconsin and Kentucky. The states that ranked below us were Arizona, Nevada, D.C. and Alaska.

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