To determine all this stuff, the people behind the study, the nonprofit Editorial Projects in Education Research Center (got that?), factored in things like level of income, types of families, language and education. California came in below the national average in things like:

"percent of children whose parents work full-time, speak English, graduated from college, earn at least a middle-level income; percent of children proficient in reading and proficient in math; and percent of adults who work full time."

We're not the best stat-heads, but it appears that our low scores come as a result of having high amounts of immigrants in the state and that could kind of skew the results. We're not sure if that's a correct way to assess anything. Also not mentioned is a definition of "success." We think just as a matter of course that if you want success as a surfer, D-level celebrity, or Burning Man installation builder, we'd totally kick everyone's butt in that.

The one good thing we have going for us is that our schools aren't as bad as some other states. Like New Mexico. Turns out in the determining factors (parents incomes, fluency, etc.) we have the same amount of percentages as New Mexico it's just that our schools do a better job of teaching our kids what the what is. But, just not as good as Virginia.

Did we mention the whole "Macaca" thing?