A common political talking point is that Democratic areas have better education than Republican. We decided to investigate this.
We looked at four counties in California: Los Angeles (LA), Fresno, Kern, and Kings. Two democrat leaning and two republican leaning. We evaluated state standardized test (CAASPP) data from the 2020-2021 academic year along with voter registration by party to find necessary information for determining if the claim is true. Here's what we found...
| County | Std. Exceeded | Std. Met | Std. Nearly Met | Std. Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LA | 20.56% |
27.46% |
22.84% |
29.15% |
| Kern | 14.29% |
25.64% |
24.78% |
35.29% |
| Fresno | 12.77% |
25.31% |
25.64% |
36.28% |
| Kings | 14.24% |
26.46% |
23.53% |
35.77% |
Section Summary:
A higher percentage (48.02%) of LA County (D) students met state standards for Arts and Literacy than other counties evaluated.
A higher percentage (61.92%) of Fresno County (D) students did NOT meet state standards for Arts and Literacy than other counties evaluated.
| County | Std. Exceeded | Std. Met | Std. Nearly Met | Std. Not Met |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LA | 13.48% |
17.5% |
26.05% |
42.97% |
| Kern | 7.5% |
14.34% |
26.79% |
51.37% |
| Fresno | 6.07% |
13.43% |
25.95% |
54.54% |
| Kings | 8.85% |
16.06% |
27.01% |
48.07% |
Section Summary:
A higher percentage (30.98%) of LA County (D) students met state standards for Mathematics than other counties evaluated.
A higher percentage (80.49%) of Fresno County (D) students did NOT meet state standards for Mathematics than other counties evaluated.
The following table consists of all of the averaged score data by political lean and study total.
| CAASPP Topic | D | R | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arts and Literacy Average Std. Met | 43.05 |
40.32 |
41.68 |
| Mathematics Average Std. Met |
25.24 |
23.38 |
24.31 |
| Arts and Literacy Average Std. Not Met |
56.96 |
59.69 |
58.32 |
| Mathematics Average Std. Not Met |
74.76 |
76.62 |
75.69 |
Summary:
Overall, Democratic areas do have better scores than Republican, but neither has "good" scores. In all areas reviewed, the majority of students did not meet state standards for "Arts and Literacy" and "Mathematics".