How good is your state's school system? New report assigns grades

Education is a hot topic in the U.S., particularly the public kind.

How can we pay for it? How can we make it more effective? How can we make it more efficient?

A new reportby the by the Center for American Progress, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Enterprise Institute grades each state's schools and reveals that the nation's schools are at a critical crossroads.

So critical, in fact, that not a single state got an "A" on its report card, and most received barely passing grades.

What's more, educators know it. More than two-thirds of U.S. teachers disapprove of how their public schools are run, and 90 percent said “routine duties and paperwork” interfere with teaching, the report found.

I was disappointed to learn that my hometown state, Pennsylvania, received just a C average, showing strength at removing ineffective teachers but weakness in everything else, particularly funneling kids to college and university study.

My current state of residence, New York, showed much better numbers -- but some states such as Nebraska and Kansas didn't fare nearly as well.

Check out the school leaders and laggards report here.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com