States with the Best & Worst School Systems (2026)

By Adam McCann, WalletHub Financial Writer

Securing a child’s academic success begins with choosing the right schools. But how can parents decide where to enroll their kids? Because children develop and learn at different rates, the ideal answer to that question varies based on each student’s needs. Those needs have become even more specialized in the face of significant inflation and economic uncertainty, which have strained family resources and affected students’ academic performance and well-being.

Unfortunately, most parents can’t afford to place their children in exclusive, private or preparatory schools that give their students greater individual attention. For the majority of U.S. families, public education is the only option. The quality of public school systems varies widely from state to state, though, and is often a question of funding. Public elementary and secondary education money usually flows from three sources: the federal, state and local governments. According to the U.S. Department of Education, states contribute nearly as much as local governments, while the federal government supplies the smallest share. Some researchers have found that more resources — or taxes paid by residents — typically result in better school-system performance.

Unlike other research that focuses primarily on academic outcomes or school finance, WalletHub’s analysis takes a more comprehensive approach. It accounts for performance, funding, safety, class size and instructor credentials. To determine the top-performing school systems in America, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 32 key metrics.

States With the Best School Systems

Massachusetts
Connecticut
New Jersey
Virginia
New Hampshire

Read the full list here.

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