Well Educated Citizens

by KYW's Dr. Marciene Mattleman

Boston has Harvard, Seattle has Microsoft, San Jose has high tech and the Washington DC metropolitan area has the best educated citizens in the nation, so begins an article in The Washington Post.

Findings from a study by the Brookings Institute affirm Washington's status using census data from 2008, for the 100 largest metropolitan areas. For four decades, DC's primacy has prevailed. Holding bachelor's degrees are 46.8% of the population with 21.9% having earned graduate degrees. Its surrounding counties--Arlington, Alexandria (actually a city},Fairfax and Montgomery have even higher rates of graduates.

While its residents are very well educated, the article also points out most people received their degrees elsewhere. Nevertheless, Washington is a college town with 81 college students for every 1,000 residents.

When Michael Nutter ran for Mayor in Philadelphia, one of his goals was to double the number of those in the city with bachelor's degrees from 18% to 36%. For information on how the Mayor's office is helping more Philadelphians get to college, visit PhillyGoes2College.com.