[MuttTheHoople]

Actually, THAT'S a pile of crap. The Blue State Education flaw is that many of the Leftist States are racially homogenous (aka, mostly white like Vermont, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, etc.), don't allow blacks or Hispanics to populate any anywhere other than their urban areas. There's a lot of racial segregation in these areas and therefore the racial tension is in the societies at large, but not in their schools. An example of a Red State with excellent education is Utah, which is over 95% white.

In Conservative States, the races are more mixed together. Because of the horrid racism of lily-White Democrats in the past Century, they've had to deal with the issue of race for the past 50 years. In many black, Hispanic, and poor white communities, education is of very low importance.

I once read a Sociological report that, if you took 18 Delta counties out of Mississippi (there's 82 counties in the State), they'd be anywhere betweend 20th and 30th in all measurable rankings. That's because the Delta is 75-80% black and they've lived under Democrat rule for hundreds of years.

[napscoordinator]

Well Maryland is not lilly white and is the number one state in education in the country. I still won’t send my kids to public school because I want them in Catholic School but Maryland does have incredible public schools.