On Equity, Local School Districts Middle of the Pack

Washington is ranked the 16th-least equitable state as far as its school districts go, and new research reveals how that inequality breaks down by each district.

A study by the personal finance website WalletHub measured the difference between each district's average household income and its per pupil cost.

Out of nearly 300 districts, Quincy was 84th, the best-performing school district in the region. The rest of the top five, in descending order, were Waterville, Eastmont, Cascade and Wenatchee. Omak was the least equitable district in North Central Washington at 264th.

WalletHub's methodology is as follows:

For expenditures, for each 1 percent above the state's average we removed 1 point from a base score of 50 points for each district. For household income, for each 1 percent above the state's average we added 1 point to a base score of 50 points for each district. The inverse was true for each 1 percent below the state's average.

The final score for each district was calculated by taking the absolute difference between the score for expenditures and the score for household income. We then ranked the districts based on the total score, with the lowest value, representing the most equitable, being ranked 1.

Below are all the school districts in North Central Washington ranked in descending order:

The full study and its results can be found here.