(The Center Square) – Madison’s top five ranking on a new most-educated list is a testament to the University of Wisconsin.
WalletHub has Madison ranked as the fifth most educated city in America.
“Ninety-five percent of adults 25 and older have a high school diploma,” the WalletHub study states. “Seventy-five percent of adults 25 and older have at least some college experience, or an associate’s degree or higher. And nearly 48% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree.”
Another 19% of adults in Madison have a graduate or professional degree.
Madison comes in just behind Ann Arbor, Mich., San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif., Washington D.C. Arlington and Alexandria, Va., and San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, Calif.
Those cities are all homes to either large universities, tech companies, or both. Washington, D.C. is, of course, the nation’s capital.
While Madison gets high marks for overall education and the success of the University of Wisconsin, the city’s public schools don’t do as well in the WalletHub survey.
The survey ranks Madison’s public schools 104 of 150 in its survey, and says Madison has a -15.35% racial education gap.
Milwaukee and Waukesha counties also make WalletHub’s most educated list, at 57th in the country.
“Ninety-two percent of adults 25 and older in Milwaukee and Waukesha counties have a high school diploma,” Wallethub’s numbers show. “Another 66% have at least some college experience, or an associate’s degree or higher. And nearly 35% have a bachelor’s degree.”
WalletHub says just over 13% have a graduate or professional degree.
Milwaukee and Waukesha counties, too, get marked down for their public schools.
WalletHub’s numbers rank the school systems in the two communities 129th on their list of 150 places. And Wallethub says there is a -18.64% racial education gap.
Most of that, however, likely comes from Milwaukee Public Schools. Numbers have shown for years that Milwaukee has the worst gap between black and white students in the country.
