What are the worst states in the country to live and raise a family?

[ringmastery]

Texas - no explanation necessary.

The only positive thing I can think of is there is no state income tax, which is really a negative since the schools and public services suck because of that.

[efhmc]

1. Not true, unless you are poor and then it definitely stinks.

Edited to add that it stinks anywhere if one is poor.

[MichaelHarris]

2. Mississippi

To quote Matthew Broderick from "Biloxi Blues"

"Its Africa hot, Tarzan couldn't stand this heat"

[Sugarbleus]

3. Idaho.

Bigotry, racism, strong religious leanings in every aspect of life, inadequate education programs, no "diversity" education/attitudes, women as second class citizens..etc.

My poor grandchildren are still stuck up there with their weird father. They had NEVER seen a black person until they came to visit me in Calif.

[MichaelHarris]

4. Northern Idaho

I live on the Washington/Idaho border and they have some crazies in Northern Idaho. That detective in the OJ case moved up there and lives in a wacko militia compound. And remember, he never used the "N" word. What a dik.

[Sugarbleus]

5. He lives in a Militia compound? wow The countryside is beautiful but

some odd folks inhabit them thar hills. Too bad. My g.kids live in far Eastern Idaho. There are some nice people, of course, but the general "feeling" a visitor gets is that they are visiting Stepfordville. Not much smiling and no sense of "liberty". weird......

[MichaelHarris]

6. common

Its a common occurrence to go camping or backpacking up there and see guys doing militiaman maneuvers Kinda scary.

[Exultant Democracy]

21. Oh my god yes, worst six months of my life

I was 15 when I moved there so I was able to get a drives license. It was then that I learned that driving a Benz while colored was a crime.

It was quite the scaring experience, not only did I deal with racism every day at school, but then as a kid with a brand new drives license I had the pleasure of getting pulled over every time I passed a cop.

[Sugarbleus]

35. What in the world caused your family to go there? Work?

Boy oh boy, I really sympathize with your experience. Heck, just having a Calif. license plate was enough to get theeeeeeeee most gruesome glares from other drivers; especially those in trucks with gun racks in their windows.

My family is working like mad to get my g.kids OUT of there. They are growing up with a distorted view of life. It is heartbreaking. I went in with my daughter to see a lawyer for this case and came away in FITS! The first thing that came to my mind was the movie: Not without my daughter. I told the lawyer his state was like Saudi Arabia!
I could go on with more stories but you know first hand what a "free thinking" or non-white person is up against in that god aweful state.

Where are you now? Somewhere pleasant I hope.

[Exultant Democracy]

40. Yep it was for work and we pretty much moved in and out

I think that even if we hadn't been a mixed family we still would have left because of everything else. It was a beautiful place with very ugly institutions, turning out very ugly people.

[Gringo]

7. Louisiana - home of "cancer alley"

Lousy weather, horrible pollution, climate, crime... Yuk

Honorable mention:

Mississippi
Alabama
Utah
Georgia
Pennsylvania
Ohio

I ralize that there are lovely pockets of each of these states, just my overall impressions.

Best:

California
New Mexico
New York
Hawaii
North Carolina

[Gloria]

8. My take on NM and NJ.......

A lifelong resident of NJ (except for a few years, as in a miserabe year in Milwaukee) until about 5 years ago when I moved to NM...I couldn't breathe in NJ anymore--too damp and too DIRTY!!! Hectic, expensive, and going downhill from the crowding and pollution...

NM--even with the occasional air inversion that bring El Paso/Juarez and it's smoke and crap up into our valley 50 miles north, the air quality is FAR superior. Dry and pretty good if you aren't in the valley near the farming and some of the smoke buildup at certain times of the year. Up on the mesa, it's much better all the time....

Nice people, wonderful wide open spaces, great lifestyle with mild winters....

However---a heck of a lot of poverty and single mothers, and very young at that. One of the poorest states in the country.

For an outsider moving in with some money in the bank...it's great.
But there a lot of social problems here....

[skip fox]

34. One such "pocket" in Louisiana

is Acadiana. I moved there from Ohio 22 years ago. It took me about 6 years to aclimate culturally, but now I love it. Bad weather in the summer. Rest of year it's pretty nice.

Very "laid back" and Catholic. Hell, they not only tolerate me, but I get along well, especially in and around Lafayette (a univeristy town).

[amazona]

44. shhhhhh

Got enough people moving down here already in my view. :-)

[camero]

9. Florida

One of the highest in violent crime rates, pedestrian fatalities, regressive taxation. Schools are among the worst. Almost libertarian heaven here. :(

[ringmastery]

12. Where in Florida do you live?

There are many nice areas. Check out West Palm Beach.

Overall, you can't beat the weather and cost of living, compared to many parts of the country.

[camero]

13. WPB is nice if you have money

Not if you don't. I'm next to Clearwater. Not to mention that it's Bush country all around.

[ringmastery]

14. I thought Pineallas County

went for Gore in 2000?

[camero]

16. It did

But it went to Jeb in 2002. He got almost 60% of the vote here. As you well know, like the rest of the country, social spending has gone right down the tubes and the only tax cuts go to the wealthy.

[Shanty Oilish]

20. Pinellas...

Isn't that where they have that stinking ape farm you can smell for miles---on old Rte 19? Pyu! x(

ed: or, was that Crawford TX?

[RebelOne]

37. Yes, definitely Florida, especially South Florida.

I can attest to that, as I lived there most of my life, until I wised up and moved to North Georgia.

[Gildor Inglorion]

48. As a native north Georgian

I can attest to the beauty of the area and the nice, nice people. I live in south Mississippi now; enough said. By the way (and NO offense intended) do you know what north Georgians call migrants from Florida? "Flor-idiots."

[jus_the_facts]

10. Louisiana ain't great.....

....but it's been my home all my life! :shrug:

[MAlibdem]

11. Texas

Clearly. Demographics might change that over the next 30 years, but def texas

[EstimatedProphet]

15. Mississippi

Did a 7 year internment there in grad school. Unfortunately there's not a lot of hope for the future in the population. Everyone seemed to kind of assume that they would work the wood pulp mills, and that's all they'd ever be able to do.

[Maddy McCall]

22. I live here...finishing my doctorate...

Don't make blanket statements about the resident of ANY state because that's simply NOT true.

[EstimatedProphet]

38. I happen to be talking about my experiences

If you have different ones, more power to you. But, I finished my doctorate there and found there was a lot of the general population that never really believed they had a chance to do anything to make their lives better. And that was in a college town.

[fortyfeetunder]

27. NPR talked about MS Sat AM

mainly about education. MS consistently ranks dead last in education, the last state to finally end segregation in schools, and finally funded public school kindergarten. Sad.

[Stocat]

17. Texas is not the worst state to grow up in

Please remember that Texas has bastions of liberalism including parts of San Antonio, Austin and Dallas...The University system is well funded and pretty decent. Public education there is much better than a lot of other southern states. TEXAS ISN'T THE STATE TRYING TO GET RID OF EVOLUTION. San Antonio has a cultural diversity not seen in alot of white bred surburban cities. I loved growing up there and wouldn't trade it for anything.

[Snow]

18. Anywhere that claims to be a good place to raise a family.

that's code if ever I heard it.

[IronLionZion]

19. Michigan and Pennsylvania

have their good areas but are generally full of racist rednecks.

[FDRrocks]

23. I'll agre, firsthand, on Pa.

I am 20, and spent 1/3 of my education in Oregon, another in Florida, and the final in Pennsylvania.

I was a straight A student in the latter 2 but basically sucked in the former. I place some blame on my cynicism as I grew older, but of the 3 Pa's educational system is, by far, the worst.

[IronLionZion]

26. it just blows

[mvd]

29. It's ok in the suburbs of Philly and Pittsburgh I guess

Some districts there are exceptional - but yes, many districts, from rural districts to the Philly district, are underfunded. The Philly school district, which has a poor reputation, has shown some improvement lately.

[FDRrocks]

30. I live in Scranton...

the forgotten ex-coal, ex-coke trafficking town. The education in NEPA is severely lacking.

[mvd]

31. That's not surprising

PA hasn't managed its finances well for a long time. Rendell's trying to change things, but they are forcing him to move slowly.

[FDRrocks]

32. I don't think my area is going to see any change.

Scranton just got finished electing its first all Republican city council. The nearest big city, Wilkes-Barre, has elected the same mayor (an Irish name I cannot spell at the time) several times, who sucks severely and has bankrupted the once rich city, but he keeps getting elected due to the large amount of Irish folks in the area.

Yup, I can't wait to leave this area. I really respect Rendell b/c the first time Bush came to Scranton after he became president.... Bush was speaking at Scranton University and Rendell was 5 blocks up the speak denouncing his fiscal policies.

[mvd]

41. Good luck to you either way

If you have to stay, he's hoping for better times. :hi:

[mvd]

24. I'm from Pennsylvania and it isn't that bad

In fact, my relatives from Clearfield and Centre counties are hard-working, down to earth, and have some roots as Democrats. I'm sure PA has its share of racists, but it seems that rural PA people are more known for their guns than racism. They also fall into the "family values" line too much.

PA is fine to raise a family in because of the non-hectic lifestyle and all of the towns (PA towns really haven't changed too much), but its older population can detract.

From what I've seen, West Virginia probably isn't a great place to raise a family.

[IronLionZion]

25. I'm from Somerset

strong Klan ties here and regular joes don't hesitate to call me a terrorist for being brown. Brown people, Black people, and most of all gay people get beat up over here. But I'm sure other places are better. I just happened to grow up in a terribly right-wing town.

[mvd]

28. I'm familiar with the State College area, which is more liberal

Harrisburg is pretty Repuke but not bad from what I've seen. I'm sure there are different sides to rural PA - I'm just saying it isn't all bad. :-)

[fujiyama]

36. I've lived...

in SE Mi and have faced very few incidents of racism...Most of the rednecks live in central MI (isn't Grand Rapids home of all those Christian stores -- one of them sells necklaces with nails from "The Passion").

I'd say that rural Indiana and Ohio are worse than MI.

[alfredo]

45. Pontiac Michigan. Horrible racist town

There were a lot of Klan/Republicans there.

[AlFrankenFan]

33. Southern California

No question about it.

[mitchtv]

39. I was just about to post "what no attacks on California?"

you tried, but Southern California is not a state . Luckily it is balanced by beautiful Nor Cal, a wonderful place to live

[LTR]

42. California!

Too much materialism, too expensive, and the educational system sucks.

I lived there, and many people are dumb as rocks. No offense to California DUers, of course.

Best place is Minnesota, IMHO.

[midnight armadillo]

43. Mixed feelings on MA

Massachusetts pluses: a lot of good school systems, secular government, interesting climate. Great cities (Boston, Cambridge, Rockport, etc).

Minuses: outrageous real estate, esp for those good schools. Terrible traffic, air pollution in summertime (thanks Midwest!). Cape Cod. McMansions going up, along with a trend to 2 bed condos and elderly housing to freeze out families with children from communities. Long-ass commutes if you're not on the commuter rail line or subway.

My new job runs for 2 years in Cambridge, and after that we're heading to Worcester in central MA or southern NH if jobs are there. The houses are insane here - it's very very hard to find much that's affordable (3 beds under say $275k - a starter home, you know?) east of rt. 495. I'm working on convincing my wife that a job at Dartmouth College in mid-NH would be a good next step. Affordable housing nearby, nice natural setting, college town. Plus I want plenty of land for wood heating, a greehouse, and gardening in the Peak Oil era :P

[Kamika]

46. Just what is wrong with Texas?

Just curious?



I'm born here and imo it's a great state with the friendliest people on Earth

[SmileyBoy]

49. I'm sorry, but the friendliest people on Earth are in ND and Manitoba.

I've been to Texas twice, and I've found people there to be very judgemental and socially reserved.

For example, up here, if your car gets stuck in the snow, someone will STOP and HELP YOU dig it out.

[Red State Rebel]

47. Texas schools?

When on tour with the Drum Corp I volunteer with, we stay in a different high school almost every night. The last 2 years I've been with them during the Texas part of the tour and was extremely impressed with the schools we stayed at.

[SmileyBoy]

50. I'm gonna have to go with Texas on this one.

If I had children, that's probably the place I wouldn't want to bring them up.