Plano Makes list for top literate U.S. Cities

Plano has one of the most educated populations in the nation, according to a national survey released earlier this week.According to America’s Most Literate Cities, 2007, Plano ranks No. 2 for education attainment.

The rankings were based on the percentage of adult population with a high school diploma or higher and the percentage of the adult population with a bachelor's degree or higher.

Seattle, which ranked No. 2 in the overall numbers, beat out Plano in this categoryThe annual study, conducted by Dr. John W. Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University, captures a snapshot of literacy in cities with a population of 250,000 or more.

Cities were selected based on their 2006 U.S. Census population figures.The study focuses on six important indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores within a city, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources.Plano ranked 51 in the 2007 study, compared to 53 in 2006. Austin, Fort Worth and Dallas were other Texas cities that ranked higher.


Plano outranked, Houston, Arlington, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and El Paso. Brad Shanklin, president of the Plano Chamber of Commerce, said the education ranking is not surprising given they city’s business base.“With the high tech industry in Plano and the type of national and world headquarters in Plano, you have a higher percentage of the population with a college degree,” he said.Shanklin pointed to the likes of EDS, Frito Lay, JCPenny, McAfee, Pepsi, Dr Pepper/Cadburys,“It’s the national leadership, and it’s highly educated,” he said.The city’s high tech industry adds to the degree count.“We’re fortunate to have a lot of high tech and engineering industry, most of which requires a minimum of a bachelor’s [degree],” he said.

That educated workforce trickles down into the public schools as well.“Studies that show that children who come from educated parents are more likely to go to college,” said Shanklin, who also sits on Plano ISD school board.Beyond the generational factor, Shanklin said the school district is “a leader in curriculum and teaching style. We hear from a lot of college freshmen who said they can’t believe the level of education they get in Plano.”

City manager Tom Muehlenbeck added, “It goes right back to ethics of the community and values of a good education, a strong secondary system, a strong community college system and a strong state system. Our citizens believe in using the continuing education system, including the library.”The city also had a strong showing in terms of library resources, ranking 28th, the report shows. Ranking in this category were determined by five factors: the number of school media personnel per 1,000 public school students, the number of branch libraries per 10,000 library service population, per capita volumes held in the library, circulations per capita, and the number of library professional staff per 10,000 library service population.The rankings are based on 2005-06 data. Joyce Baumbach, director of libraries, said things have changed since then. The library system now has 761,236 total collections, compared to the 686,997 number used in the study’s data source.

In the last fiscal year, the library had a circulation of almost 2.9 million, with 1.5 million patron visits.Meanwhile, the library has more than 60 people with a master’s degree in library science, the standard necessary to be declared a professional in library field.On the downside, Plano lost points because the Plano Star Courier’s weekday and Sunday circulation was not counted.

The study, which ranked Plano at the bottom of the newspaper category, counted only papers audited by Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). Certified Audit of Circulations, an objective third-party auditor, audits the Plano Star Courier along with all Star Community Newspapers.Bill Weaver, Group Publisher, Star Community Newspapers, said that had the Star Courier’s numbers been included, the city’s ranking might very well have moved up the chart.

“While many other newspapers’ circulation has been declining, ours has held strong,” he said.Internet usage is another variable that figured in the rankings, and could have been another opportunity for Plano to rank higher. Internet resources were indexed as four variables including the number of library Internet connections per 10,000 people, the number of Internet book orders per capita, the number of unique visitors per capita to a city’s internet version newspaper and the number of webpage views per capita to a city’s internet version newspaper.

Weaver said the newspaper Internet data is gathered from the same source as newspaper circulation, which again, excludes the Star Courier.In the last year, the Star Courier has put significant focus on its Internet product. As a result, the paper has almost doubled the number of page views.“We’re doing more breaking news than we’ve ever done. We’re hitting the Internet before it’s getting out on print. We’ve added features like videos and online surveys online.


As a result, we’re drawing more people online,” he said.Only the library’s statistics were counted in Plano’s 63rd place rating.The library system has 165 public computers, which logged about 390,000 sessions in the last fiscal year.Baumbach said while there is much debate around the Internet’s impact on decreased book reading, she doesn’t see it.

“There’s been a lot of talk about the demise of the book, but you can see by our circulation and computer usage, you can’t say one is used more than another.Meanwhile, Plano ranked 56 in the bookseller category. Shanklin said that a cursory glance through the Yellow Pages shows the city has more than 40 bookstores, including three and four locations for major chains.However, Weaver noted that bookstores categorized as “religious” were not counted, even though many in Plano sell other genres.

With many factors excluded in the study, Shanklin said, “I don’t get graded evenly.”

This is no surprise to me. I graduated here and life here is fantastic! Great people.