Best schools vs lowest taxes; how closely do they relate?

Tom Barlow
Updated

Yesterday I blogged about a recent study by The Tax Foundation ranking state by the rate of state plus local taxes residents of each state paid. One commenter mentioned that there was a correlation between education and taxes paid- that is, better funded schools product better educated students. I thought I'd take a look-

Scott and Kathleen Morgan publish a yearly rating of U.S. Education by state, Education State Rankings, in which they use 21 criteria to create an overall score showing how far above or below the national average each state's students fall. in 2007, their smartest states were:

  1. Vermont 18.57

  2. Massachusetts 16.09

  3. Connecticut 14.46

  4. New Jersey 14.35

  5. Maine 10.79

  6. Virginia 10.07

  7. Montana 9.55

  8. Wisconsin 9.04

  9. Iowa 8.82

  10. Pennsylvania 8.69

Compare this with The Tax Foundation's ten highest state/local tax burdens-

  1. New Jersey, 11.8%

  2. New York, 11.7%

  3. Connecticut, 11.1%

  4. Maryland, 10.8%

  5. Hawaii, 10.6%

  6. California, 10.5%

  7. Ohio, 10.4%

  8. D.C., 10.3%

  9. Vermont, 10.3%

  10. Minnesota, 10.2%

Three states appear in both; Vermont, New Jersey and Connecticut. Of course, this is a very simple comparison of a complex problem, but a 30% correlation would cause me to at least ponder the question more.

Morgan's ten least smart states were (#50 is the least)

41. Georgia -6.92
42. Hawaii -9.31
43. New Mexico -10.6
44. Louisiana -10.95
45. Alabama -11
46. Alaska -11.91
47. California -13.1
48. Mississippi -14.78
49. Nevada -15.81
50. Arizona -17.61

Compare this with the ten lowest state/local tax burden states:

41. Alaska, 6.4%
42. Nevada 6.6%
43. Wyoming 7.0%
44. Florida 7.4%
45. New Hampshire 7.6%
46. South Dakota 7.9%
47. Tennessee 8.3%
48. Louisiana 8.4%
49. Texas 8.4%
50. Arizona 8.5%

Four of ten appear on both lists; Louisiana, Alaska, Nevada and Arizona.

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