Pennsylvania’s public schools rank amongst U.S.’s best

The 2024-25 academic year is well underway.

And Pennsylvania has just been ranked as one of the top states as far as its public education goes.

ConsumerAffairs — which, according to its " About Us " page, is a buyers' guide whose website is "where consumers share their experiences and where thousands of businesses respond to them and improve" — recently published a report detailing those aforementioned best states for public education.

In order to create the report, the ConsumerAffairs Research Team analyzed all 50 states plus Washington D.C. across four main metrics: "K-12 performance," "school funding and resources," "higher education quality," and "safety." Submetrics such as "K-12 pupil/teach ratio" and "average in-district tuition and fees" were also taken into account.

When all was said and done, Pennsylvania ranked fifth overall. The Keystone State's best category was "K-12 performance," under which it ranked third.

"Pennsylvania is a great place to live if you want a good education," reads the report. "This Northeastern state has the second-highest high school graduation rate in the nation (95.89%), and students have an average ACT score of 23.9, which is 23% higher than the national average.

"The Keystone State also has a lower-than-average student-to-teacher ratio (13.3 students per teacher) and employs an impressive number of teachers with advanced degrees."

Rounding out the top five best states for education were Washington in fourth; New Jersey in third; New York in second; and Massachusetts in first.

On the other end of the spectrum, Arizona ranked last in the 51st spot.