Disagree.. we have an issue.. they have a pandemic.
Most of the surrounding communites are welfare states.. the major employers being alternative youth facilities, the local or state government, or as most choose to do, just don't work.
The entire area has SSI, and welfare worked out to a science. Complete with doctors willing to invent disabilities for anyone (entire familes, multiple generations even) that doesn't want to work.
The worst thing I did to my kids was move into that area.. the best thing I did for my kids was to get the hell out of there. WORST public school systems in the country.
I's kind of hard to get a job when the employers have all moved or closed:
Knox Glass
REM Coal
C and K Coal
Glacial Minerals
Owens-Illinois Glass
LEF&C Railroad
Conrail (now CSX)
Trail King
Bev Air (they've not closed, just cut back to a skeleton shift)
Miller Welding (same as with Bev Air)
Knox and Kane Railroad/Mountain Laurel Railroad
Wolf's Head Refining
Zippo
Quaker State Refining
Shawmut Railroad
Pullman Standard
Those are just the major ones. The school systems, depending on which one, are better than most in MD. Sorry, that's the way it is. MD ranks high because the Education Week editorial board like the High School Assessments.
I can also say my daughter who went to Slippery Rock got a better college education than either of my kids who went to UMD College Park and Towson, respectively.
