This is what happens when you value some right things as a civic culture

And how do the states rank in that "Quality Counts 2007" education survey?

Like this:

Virginia

Connecticut

Minnesota

New Jersey

Maryland

Massachusetts

New Hampshire

Wisconsin

Nebraska

Vermont

Iowa

Illinois

Kansas

North Dakota

Pennsylvania

Colorado

South Dakota

Delaware

New York

Rhode Island

Utah

Washington

Maine

Wyoming

Hawaii

Michigan

Montana

Ohio

Alaska

Indiana

District of Columbia

Florida

Missouri

California

Idaho

North Carolina

Oregon

Georgia

Arkansas

Oklahoma

Kentucky

South Carolina

Nevada

West Virginia

Alabama

Mississippi

Tennessee

Texas

Arizona

Louisiana

New Mexico

Hint to the low-ranking states . . . good schools take two things, which must go hand-in-hand:

1) Money. And that means taxes. In our Omaha school district, we pay more than $2,800 in property taxes on our very average residence. More than $1,600 of that goes to the school district.

2) Education has to be important to John and Jane Doe. They have to care about it; they have to support their public schools, which means holding them accountable; they have to stay on their kids' butts to learn and achieve. That's hard, but necessary, slogging.