Education

Study: Arizona Has 3rd Worst School System in America

KAWC | By Victor Calderón

Published July 29, 2019 at 11:49 AM MST

A study released today finds that Arizona has the third worst public school system in the country.

WalletHub, a personal finance website, compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia across 29 measures of quality and safety.

Arizona ranked last, number 51, in pupil-teacher ratio. That was one point of contention for Arizona teachers during the 2018 Red for Ed movement, when teachers asked state leaders for a 25:1 ratio amid several teachers saying they had some classes with 40 or more students each.

Other low rankings for Arizona are number 48 in dropout rate and number 40 in the percentage of licensed or certified public K-12 teachers. The highest score for Arizona in the study was number 17 in bullying incident rate.

Tags

Victor Calderón

Victor is originally from West Sacramento, California and has lived in Arizona for more than five years. He began his print journalism career in 2004 following his graduation from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. Victor has been a reporter for the following daily newspapers: The Monterey County Herald, The Salinas Californian and the Reno Gazette-Journal, where he covered stories including agriculture, education and Latino community news. Victor has also served as a local editor for Patch, a national news organization with hyperlocal websites, in Carmichael, California in the Sacramento area. He also served as the editor for The New Vision, the newspaper for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson, which includes Yuma and La Paz counties. Victor lives in Somerton. He enjoys spending time with his family and friends and following most sports.

See stories by Victor Calderón