Maryland Ranked 12th in Nation for Public Education in 2026 Report

Maryland ranked 12th in ConsumerAffairs’ 2026 ranking of the best public education systems in the United States, dropping three spots from ninth in 2025 and returning to the position it held in 2024.

The ConsumerAffairs Research Team compared all 50 states across four categories: K-12 academic outcomes, school funding and resources, higher education, and school safety. The analysis evaluates the overall strength of public education systems, including student outcomes, college affordability and completion, resources, and safety.

Maryland received a total score of 53.14 in the 2026 ranking. Its strongest showing was in school funding, where it ranked eighth nationally, followed by higher education at 10th. Maryland ranked 26th in K-12 academic outcomes and 48th in school safety.

Here is how Maryland’s results compare across the three editions:

Maryland’s K-12 and higher education placements improved from 2025, while its school funding placement remained unchanged. School safety saw the largest shift among its category rankings, moving from 24th in 2025 to 48th in 2026.

ConsumerAffairs notes that its methodology has been refined each year, including updates to metrics and category weights. As a result, changes in rankings and scores should not be read as direct measurements of how much conditions improved or worsened from one year to the next.

The report also emphasizes that the overall ranking measures more than academic achievement. A state can perform well in one category and place considerably lower in another, as Maryland’s results illustrate.

Massachusetts took the top spot in the 2026 ranking, followed by New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Washington. Virginia ranked ninth, while Pennsylvania placed 11th, immediately ahead of Maryland.