
Most and Least Educated Cities in America - tim_sw
https://wallethub.com/edu/most-and-least-educated-cities/6656/#main-findings
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csense
As someone from a place in the Rust Belt that's well in the triple digits of
this 150-city ranking, I think I have a little insight.

The problem isn't a lack of smart, ambitious kids. It's not bad schools. There
are even multiple universities.

The problem's that the smart, ambitious kids mostly choose to move elsewhere
after HS or college. Even for the ones that want to stay, the local economy
and job market isn't that great.

We need to improve the level at which you attract/retain both educated people
and well-paying jobs for them. How do we do that, given that both are at
fairly low levels and it's something like a chicken-or-egg problem?

~~~
NTDF9
As a person who's been about in those areas, I think part of the reason is the
mass-delusion that education and sciences is somehow a bad thing.

Far too many common folks out in the country think that education is not worth
it, science is not worth learning, healthcare and public transportation is
second-class.

It shows in the way they live, the way they socialize, the way they vote.
They'd rather spend money on Church than healthcare. They'd rather worry about
their individual taxes than on improving schools and teaching critical
thinking and sciences.

The really ambitious/educated kids realize that it is a (apologies) shit-hole
and get out asap.

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Pica_soO
Not a chance, that maybe, if you view family and community as a value and
realize that all those people going to vanish in the hedonistic accid bath we
labeled society will not contribute to either, its your right to withold
support to this? Especially if those who turn theire back return to dissolve
the livelihood of people without creating a worth-wile replacement?

The fact that these communities basically with education create forces that
harass and destroy them, makes the delay in backlash actually quite
astounding.

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mnm1
WTF does this mean?

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icebraining
Seems understandable to me: residents of these less educated communities see
their kids get an education and that leading them to leave their home towns
into the wider society (with its destructive hedonistic culture), and in turn
to reject the values of their parents and even advocate for policies that
destroy these communities. Hence these older generations resist getting their
kids "too much" education.

It's an interesting point, though it reminds me of this satirical ad on GTA
SA:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XydMKkHBL4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XydMKkHBL4)

~~~
mnm1
Understandable? It's barely English. And wow, that's absolutely fucking
disgusting on the part of the parents if what you say is true (I don't doubt
it). Maybe the parents' values _should_ be destroyed then. That is some fucked
up shit. Hey, let's hold our kids back from advancing in life because our own
stupid, small-minded beliefs dictate so. After all, it takes some real
stupidity to judge all wider society cultures (yes, plural) as hedonistic and
destructive.

~~~
aaron-lebo
You don't get it. These parents aren't trying to ruin their kids' lives (they
care about them more than you do - they actually did the hard stuff like raise
and support them), they just don't know any better (lack of education) and
they want to keep their families together and presumably what is best for
their kids.

It's not that hard to understand if you try and put yourself in their shoes
and don't assume they are "disgusting, stupid, and small-minded". You aren't
any different than them in your judgement of other societies, you just happen
to have a potential advantage in education. What is your excuse for such
derision?

You act like these people are animals and you aren't ever going to reach them
and you are going to exacerbate the same impact you are talking about. Do you
have the same view of all poor people embedded in a national culture?

~~~
osaatcioglu
The discussion is not about caring and supporting the kids. The parents' best
intention is not questioned but rather the method on how to apply the best
intentions on their children.

As I was born in a conservative background and I found my way out in a long
journey in a totally different country, I agree that people with the
conservative background regardless of any country have a tendency to see the
education, tech, big cities or most of the new things as poisonous to their
core values. So that, they are trying to hinder their children to have access
to these just because they love them and care them. They just want their kids
to be happy and stay in the family as themselves who were kept by their
parents.

In my opinion, this is not a new thing. This has been going for a very long
time throughout the history. I understand that the change is scary from the
conservative point of view. This is why; I try to not to judge anyone. But, I
just see it as a puny fight against the windmill in the long run.

~~~
ethbro
_> They just want their kids to be happy and stay in the family as themselves
who were kept by their parents._

The most important choices in parenting are mutually exclusive "good" options.

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analog31
If you want to attract the educated to a city, it's my hunch that you should
try to make the city better for everybody in the lower tiers. Improve overall
wages. Improve K-12 education, which was a huge factor in where my spouse and
I chose to live. Improve how women are treated.

Employers want to locate their businesses in places where they would want to
live themselves. People are looking for a city where an educated, or non-
educated spouse might be able to find a job. They want to live in a "nice"
environment.

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2sk21
The problem with using MSAs for this kind of analysis is that it ignores
states like New Jersey. Some parts of new Jersey are very highly educated but
do not fall within an MSA.

~~~
jimmyrocks
All of NJ falls within an MSA. There are 7 that cover the state: New York,
Allentown/Bethlehen, Trenton/Mercer, Philadelphia, Vineland, Atlantic City,
and Ocean City/Cape May.

The Trenton MSA gets a high ranking because of Princeton and the pharma
companies nearby. Where Rutgers and J&J don't affect their score as much since
their MSA (NYC) is so populated.

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kurthr
Even with Ann Arbor (pop 110k) and its 40% university population it's probably
good that Los Alamos (pop 12k) wasn't on there... great library though.

~~~
ribfeast
Santa Fe would probably also land somewhere on here if the size limit were
lowered.

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barking
From a quick glance at that map, the presence of a university skews results
one way (N.C. to Boston), the presence of immigrants skews it the other (I'm
assuming that's the explanation for the light blue along most of the Mexico
border).

~~~
krisdol
Spend more than a quick glance looking at the map then.

~~~
barking
Don't be an arse

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ranit
Very interesting. There is a huge score gap between the first and the second.
Does anybody have an inside view of what makes Ann Arbor such an exceptional
place?

~~~
TheCoelacanth
It's one of the smallest MSAs in the list with only 365k thousand people,
which makes it much easier for it to be an outlier. They included the 150
largest MSAs in the US and Ann Arbor is the 146th largest. By comparison,
number two is the sixth largest MSA with about 6 million people.

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andybak
As a Brit, I'm just astonished how many large US cities there are that I've
never heard of.

~~~
le-mark
Ha! When I lived in Germany, hanging out with German friends, the topic would
sometimes go to poorly educated, dumb Americans who didn't even know
Luxembourg was a country. I'd counter with, do you know the capital of Idaho?
The point being geography, like a lot of things, is local.

~~~
iso-8859-1
I wanted to counter with "but the capital if Idaho is so much smaller than
Luxembourg", then I ran the numbers and found out they have almost exactly the
same fraction of the total population of USA or Europe, respectively. But that
figure does include all of Russia.

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bjinwright
This can't be right there are 7 colleges in Greensboro, NC and they are ranked
106.

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flexie
in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is the king.

Move to McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX.

~~~
posterboy
Someone, perhaps with handicapped depth perception, will already be there
citing the bible. What then?

~~~
julianj
Engage in a lively, respectful, yet intelligent discussion about your
agreements and disagreements and both come away better for it?

~~~
posterboy
Given the name of the city, I suppose the discussion would be quite biased.

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hardlianotion
Looks like I have to register to read, on my phone anyway. I think I am
tending to be a little more careful about signing up to things on a whim than
I used to be.

~~~
epmaybe
Weird, I was able to read on mobile just fine.

