Florida crowned best in the US for education - thanks to high graduation rates and low tuition fees
- READ MORE: America's best public schools RANKED
Americans living a red state are receiving the best education even though the governor has been criticized for using the classroom for his cultural war.
Florida has topped the chart for the second year in a row, as Governor Ron DeSantis has redesigning the educational system by banning discussions about sexuality and gender and letting parents decide what materials are used.
While the laws have sparked criticism, a new report has determined that Florida performs best in college readiness among children in pre-Kindergarten (pre-K) through 12th grade and state universities have a 74 percent graduation rate.
However, the state fell short in math and reading scores among students in elementary school.
The other states that followed Florida were Utah, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Colorado.
![Americans living a red state are receiving the best education even though the governor has been criticized for using the classroom for his cultural war](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/08/17/84623317-13396251-image-a-2_1715187302446.jpg)
Americans living a red state are receiving the best education even though the governor has been criticized for using the classroom for his cultural war
'Florida is the number one state in the country for education,' DeSantis said last month.
'By focusing on core academic subjects and rejecting indoctrination in the classroom, we have become a standard-bearer for educational excellence.'
The ranking was conducted by US News & World Report, which used 10 metrics broken down into two groups: higher education and pre-k through 12th grade.
The metrics included preschool enrollment, college readiness, reading and math scores, high school graduation rates, debt at college graduation, college tuition and fees, educational attainment and two- and four-year college graduation rates.
Florida had the highest-rates for timely graduation in public colleges offering both two- and four-year degrees.
And those attending four-year schools had the lowest average costs for tuition and fees - the average yearly tuition is about $6,000.
In regards to pre-K through high school, Florida showed top scores in preparing students for college, which helped them succeed in taking the SAT, ACT or both.
The state ranked 12th for preschool enrollment and ninth in high school graduation rate but came in 21st and 32nd for eighth-grade reading and math scores.
![Governor Ron DeSantis has spent the last few years redesigning the educational system by banning discussions about sexuality and gender and letting parents decide what materials are used](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/08/17/84623515-13396251-Governor_Ron_DeSantis_has_spent_the_last_few_years_redesigning_t-a-4_1715187576341.jpg)
Governor Ron DeSantis has spent the last few years redesigning the educational system by banning discussions about sexuality and gender and letting parents decide what materials are used
![While the laws have sparked criticism, a new report has determined that Florida performs best in college readiness among children in pre-Kindergarten (pre-K) through 12th grade and state universities have a 74 percent graduation rate](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/08/19/84625841-13396251-image-a-8_1715191969475.jpg)
While the laws have sparked criticism, a new report has determined that Florida performs best in college readiness among children in pre-Kindergarten (pre-K) through 12th grade and state universities have a 74 percent graduation rate
'Since Governor DeSantis took office, Florida has prioritized education by providing teachers historic salary increases, ensuring students were able to return to in-person instruction following the COVID-19 pandemic, abolishing woke ideology from the classroom, eliminating Common Core and transitioning to a progress monitoring system for accountability,' The Florida Department of Education said in a statement.
However, DeSantis's movement has allowed schools to take matters into their own hands.
The Escambia County School District, located in the Florida panhandle, pulled dictionaries off its libraries' shelves out of fears that students might look up words like 'sex' due to the governors restrictions on what could be taught in schools.
While Florida may top the chart overall, an Arizona school was deemed America's best high school.
In March, the University of Florida fired all staff in positions affiliated with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).
The move, laid bare in an administrative memo, servedas the latest in the state's mission to nix DEI initiatives from public institutions.
US News and World Report released a separate report last month, announcing the nation's top 100 schools from nearly 18,000 eligible institutions.
BASIS Peoria on the outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona, is ranked first place this year, rising from 12th place in last year's rankings.
It serves fifth through to 12th graders who are majority Asian - with 70 percent of students from this ethnicity, followed by 15 percent white and six percent Hispanic. Fifty-three percent of students are male and 47 percent female.
BASIS Peoria was closely followed in the rankings by Signature School in Evansville, Indiana, and Tesla STEM High School in Redmond, Washington.
Schools are ranked based on five categories of various weightings - including the college readiness of students, curriculum breadth and state assessment proficiency.
The highest-ranked schools are those found to have the most students who achieved exceptional scores on state assessments for math, reading and science.