Vermont ranks in the top ten states in the country for academic quality and spending on public schools, according to a report released this week. The American Legislative Exchange Council’s annual report ranked Vermont seventh in the nation in overall academic achievement and seventh in the amount it spends per student. The nonprofit group of state legislators surveyed statistics from 1981 to 2003.
Of the 10 states that increased per-pupil spending in the past 20 years, only Vermont and New Hampshire, which ranked fourth, made the top 10 in academic achievement. Vermont also had the lowest student-teacher ratio last year, with an average of 11.5 students per teacher.