What could Texas learn from Massachusetts?
Red states and tea partiers really, really love to beat up on Massachusetts. To hear them tell it, you would think that the Bay State is hell on Earth. Well, let's look at some facts and see how that assessment holds up . Massachusetts is well-known for having some of the top colleges and universities in the country, or in the world for that matter, but what about children's education? Testing of fourth and eighth graders reveals that Massachusetts kids are tops in the nation in reading and math. Furthermore, rating the state as if it were a country, it would rank fifth in the world in reading and ninth in the world in math. That's a heckuva lot higher than the country as a whole rates. Moreover, when it comes to health care and social well-being, the state again is tops in the country. For example: The state has the lowest rate of uninsured, 5 percent. ( Texas has 25 percent .) They have the highest level of first trimester pregnancy care. They are second highest in chil...