>I think the way you read it is the more likely way to read it. But the way I read it for my comment was the way I had to read it to come up with California coming at the bottom while having schools all scoring near the median of schools. I was trying to come up with a way to read it to make the assertions possibly true.

Yep. Your comment here[0] made that clear. I completely misunderstood you. Sorry about that.

I think there may be some confusion about where various states sit WRT schools.

School rankings from the World Population review[1] as compared with state test scores[2] of various types and ages, as well as US News and World Report's State school rankings[3], all of which tell a different, if similar, story.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45196647

[1] https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/public-scho...

[2] https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile?sfj=...

[3] https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/education