Oh, no: Eye-DUH-ho?

By DEVIN WEEKS

Staff Writer

Oh, what a state we're in.

But is it really a dumb state?

After gathering data from sources — including the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Education, the College Board and ACT scores — SafeHome.org has found that Idaho comes in dead last in the list of states ranked smartest to, well, least intelligent-est.

"Our analysis of the available data covering educational achievement and test scores found that the smartest U.S. state is New Jersey, and (sorry to this state) the dumbest one is Idaho," reads the introduction to the "Which Americans are the Smartest?" page on SafeHome.org.

Idaho's western neighbor, Washington, came in 29th. Its Big Sky neighbor, Montana, came in near the top at No. 5.

When asked their thoughts about Idaho being ranked 51st out of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., here is what some young locals had to say:

"I think it's kind of funny," said Makaylin Wild, 18, of Coeur d'Alene. "Academically, we may not be the smartest, but I don't think that has to do with how we live, per se."

"It shouldn't have been based on test scores, especially scores like ACT and SAT, because those are harder tests to take and a lot of people have test anxiety," said Alyssa Livingston, 17, of Coeur d'Alene. "It should take in every factor like overall grades in classes or what kinds of classes they're taking, because a C in an advanced placement class may be a C, but it's an AP class that they're taking, so it's different."

"I feel like that's a broad thing to say," said Logan Jaggi, 17, of Athol. "Think about population; there's a lot less people in Idaho compared to a lot of other states. You also don't have to base how successful we are in college. There are so many other things you could be doing after high school. Idaho is one of those states that actually has a lot more people going into trades like logging."

"It's hard to classify all of Idaho as one consensus," said Julianne Harris, 17, of Hayden. "I come from Coeur d'Alene High School, and that high school is pretty well known for good test scores in this state. So I don't think it's fair to compare the whole state when there's really good overachieving schools in this state … It's just kind of goofy to compare because there are so many different factors that make every state its own unique state."

Former Press city editor Maureen Dolan, who grew up in New Jersey and covered education in Idaho for several years, said she thinks these findings have more to do with history, economics and timing than they do with levels of intelligence.

"Idaho is a young state compared to the states like New Jersey on the East Coast," she said. "New Jersey is one of the original colonies and it's home to two of the original colonial universities — Princeton and Rutgers. New Jersey has a longer history of higher education so it's more deeply ingrained in the culture there than it is here. There are more than 30 public four-year universities in New Jersey.

“Until not too long ago, Idaho relied on a natural resource and agricultural economy," she continued. "For generations, families could live well by depending on work in the mines, the forests and the fields, which didn't always require higher education. That's changed in Idaho, with the economy moving to tourism, health care, and especially with the growth of the tech industry throughout the state. Here in North Idaho, aerospace is replacing agriculture."

People in Idaho are far from dumb, Dolan said.

"It's just going to take time for Idaho to catch up, from a cultural standpoint, but it's happening," she said.

See the full "Smartest States" study: www.safehome.org/smartest-americans