Oregon shows up poorly on a national education report out Thursday. The state-by-state analysis looked at funding, early education, and student achievement.
Washington leads the West Coast on Education Week's "Quality Counts" scorecard. Oregon lags behind Washington on nearly every criterion in the report. But Oregon is ahead of neighboring California, Idaho, and Nevada.
It's the first time the Quality Counts report has put such an emphasis on early learning - an area that Oregon has prioritized in recent years, with the creation of a new state agency. Those efforts likely helped Oregon earn a B-minus for "early foundations," one of the state's few highlights.
For public school spending, Oregon and its four neighbors all earned "F's". Nearby Montana rates ahead of Oregon and behind Washington. But everyone west of the Mississippi is looking up at Wyoming. The Cowboy State's superior education funding gave it the highest overall rating outside the Northeast.
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