The LEAST Educated Cities In America (PHOTOS)

We've showed you which metro areas have the highest percentage of bachelor's degree holders according to Brookings Institute data -- now here's the reverse side of the coin. On which end of the spectrum does your metro area -- which Brookings calls "the nation’s essential economic and societal units" -- place?

For more information, see Brookings' interactive data map.

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Comments

[Lindsey Andreatos]

12:48 AM on 08/25/2010

This picture is located in Pharr, Texas. NOOOTTT McAllen!

[Mike From Hayward]

12:51 AM on 08/18/2010

I don't find it surprising Stockton is on this list.

[RogerHWerner]

12:04 AM on 08/03/2010

Interesting that four of the cities are in the San Joaquin Valley of California. I live in Stockton so I can testify that it is a city filled with not very bright people. Demographics are however changing with the influx of a more educated Bay Area population. Then there is really no reason why these cities should be filled with smart people. They have almost no tech industry, they have minimal university populations (and having taught briefly at Fresno State I can testify that academics is not this school's hallmark). These are agricultural communities with some modest commercial and industrial base. I expect that the people who live in these cities are not much different ten the majority of the people who live in the US.

[Joemmm]

10:49 AM on 07/29/2010

If you look at the interactive map all rural areas has under 3% of the population of graduate degrees. But taking the reasoning of lots of the people here those poor people on the farms and the byways of America must not be educating their children. Or could it be they are and their children are being counted in the areas that has 10+% of the local population with graduate degrees. This article and this study are miss leading. Unless one can track the movement of people's children then one cannot interpret the data in any useful manner. At least, the Brooking Institution should overlay the rate population growth or loss on to its maps showing the percentage of the population with various college degrees,

[AuntWilma]

10:25 PM on 07/28/2010

Bear in mind that holding a bachelor's degree does not equate with being educated. For most, a college education amounts to nothing more than a four-year, unsupervised extension to their adolescence.

[ssfahrer]

11:49 PM on 07/28/2010

AMEN!

[RogerHWerner]

12:07 AM on 08/03/2010

That may be the way of it today nut I was graduated in 1972 and while I certainly had a very enjoyable 4 years, it was a lot of work and I would hardly characterize it as an extension of my adolescence. If anything it served as a safe bridge between adolescence and adulthood. I didn't get really well educated until graduate school. But because I got a very good undergrad education (a traditional New England liberal education), graduate school on the West Coast merely seemed like an extension of what I had to deal with as an under graduate. It was a lot of work but not much more than what I was already used to doing.

[chloe4455]

02:13 PM on 07/27/2010

All those cities listed have a tea party organization

[ssfahrer]

11:50 PM on 07/28/2010

So do a lot of other cities. What does your argument prove? NOTHING....

[Mark V]

01:17 PM on 07/31/2010

Grasping at straws much?

[x88justy]

08:05 AM on 07/24/2010

California dominates this list, the Central Valley leading the way. I see an opportunity for a "superfund" like the toxic waste cleanup fund, except for education. Of course, an influx of teachers here by itself would change the statistics, but teaching is an impact job. They don't make things, they make lives.

[pbfishtaco]

12:06 AM on 07/27/2010

Can't speak to the cause , but for the most part this is the "reddest" part of the state. Any correlation?

[Mark V]

01:18 PM on 07/31/2010

Or perhaps some other demographic? Hmmm.... think hard.

[Mike From Hayward]

01:18 AM on 08/18/2010

I wonder, if you were to survey the two areas and ask them where they received their news, would the map look like a partisan election? The valley and low population area would be fox viewers, the red and the bay and other big cities, the blue would receive their news from sites like huff post.

[RogerHWerner]

12:11 AM on 08/03/2010

I think we have to see the education of a city's population a reflection of what happens in the city. Central Valley cities are largely agricultural communities with support services and industries. Yes, there is other activity but none that would require an especially well educated populace. There is no reason for Fresno or Stockton to be like Madison or Cambridge. I have traveled to all 48 states many times and to tell the truth, the people living in the San Joaquin Valley are no more or less intelligent than the majority of their fellow citizens. I think it fair to say that highly educated locations are an exception.

[CMB1969]

10:49 AM on 07/23/2010

Just listen to the old Buck Owens song "Streets of Bakersfield" 'Nuff said...

[BikeFreak]

12:52 AM on 07/23/2010

Places I am sure Sarah Palin has large fan bases in.

[namewithheld]

05:54 PM on 07/22/2010

Now you can see why California would elect a movie character for governor twice in a row.

[topgun1776]

04:42 AM on 07/22/2010

The RED cities in California have lowest rates of education. Not a surprise. I dare you to wear an Obama shirt in Bakersfield or Fresno! It is Bush Country. On the other hand the list of the cities with the highest rates of education are all liberal and/or majority liberal areas of their respective states.

[BikeFreak]

12:53 AM on 07/23/2010

I went through Bakersfield once.

Just once.

[Joemmm]

10:28 AM on 07/29/2010

Could be that is not where the Universities are. Is there a university of California in Bakersfield?
As I remember almost all the universities of California are close to the coast.

[nhardy]

11:24 AM on 07/29/2010

There are public universities in several of the cities listed in California:

Cal State Bakerfield
Cal State Fresno
Cal State Stockton
Cal State San Bernardino
UC Riverside

And there are numerous private colleges and universities in many of these cities. While yes, many of the California universities are close to the coast, the argument that educational opportunities are not available inland is incorrect. One of the areas in this presentation (Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario) has two public universities, so the opportunities are there.

[octaviosergio2]

04:41 AM on 07/22/2010

when the state of california pays 45000.00 dollars a year to house prisoners and collage students only 9000.00 dollars a year to learn and earn their degrees i say,''yea,we pretty screwed.'' but again,this is want the people of california wants. well taken cared of prisoners.

[kendra]

03:38 AM on 07/22/2010

Hard to believe CA used to provide it's citizens the finest schools in the country. But it's suffered a steady decline since Prop 13 passed in 1978, slowly cutting off education dollars.

[sizgorich]

04:29 AM on 07/22/2010

If you look at where the least educated parts of the state are, you will also find the geographic center(s) of resistance to repealing Prop 13, and to funding for education more generally. These are the deep red portions of a supposedly "blue" state. Sad.

[grn1]

01:41 AM on 07/22/2010

"We've showed you which metro areas have the highest percentage of bachelor's degree holders according to Brookings Institute data -- now here's the reverse side of the coin."

Try "We've shown you which metro areas..........."
Seems like an article on education might showed us which writers get the grades.

[SyphonFilter]

12:54 AM on 07/22/2010

Wait, and there's more bad news. The Neo Conservatives are in the middle of changing our high school text books, and changing them to more conservative views. Instead of saying slave trade, they substitute the word with Atlantic trade. and today, the Radical Right wing conservatives had a show down today in North Carolina where 19 NAACP members and demonstrators were arrested because the Neo-Cons want to dismantle their 46 year fight for equal access for their children to have good schools. Everyone? welcome to the Terrordome.

[JDotMill]

03:08 AM on 07/22/2010

You obviously have no idea what is going on in North Carolina do you....and while we're on the 'equal access' to good schools...how come the teachers unions and liberals slam and shoot down school vouchers?? You know, if poor families want to send their child off to a private school, but obviously can't afford it, the gov't helps out and gives them a 2500-4000 voucher so that kid can get the best education possible??

[octaviosergio2]

04:55 AM on 07/22/2010

do you really believe that a ''private'' school is going to accept a voucher from a poor black family.as long as there is racism,i don't think so.

[netwonc]

06:17 AM on 07/22/2010

Vouchers would be great, a $4K voucher to send a child to a school which cost $16K, wow , now that is a fair proposition for the poor families. Just another way to keep the working class in their place.. and the dumb-ass Carolinians will probably go for it..