The Census has released its population estimates for 2020

[kkt]

Though expecting good education to happen for peanuts is unrealistic also.

[Scott5114]

the education system here is horrible due to years of budget cuts, so if you have kids and it's important to you that they don't grow up to be stupid, then Oklahoma may not be the place for you.

Of course, throwing money at an education system doesn't necessarily make it any better.

Well, no, but the issue that Oklahoma is having is that Texas pays teachers quite a bit more than they do here. At one point, Texas was offering, on average, $7,000/year more in teacher pay than Oklahoma did, so the best Oklahoma teachers often end up resigning and accepting positions in Texas instead. (There was a kind of high-profile story where a teacher won some sort of Teacher of the Year award and accepted a position in Texas for the following school year.)

The result was that teachers are hard to come by in Oklahoma. Class sizes are large, and everyone I know of had at least one class "taught" by a sports coach rather than a properly-credentialed teacher. At one point, there was even an emergency authorization in place that waived education requirements for teachers, such that anyone could legally become a teacher without any sort of degree in education.

Teacher pay is a very simple issue to fix by just throwing money at the situation. The problem is that Oklahoma has two things working against it in this regard. Under the state constitution, raising taxes requires a supermajority in the legislature, while cutting them requires a simple majority, so it is very easy to cut taxes to the bone but then very hard to reverse that move. Additionally, there is some sort of restriction that requires any property tax assessments earmarked for education to pay for physical assets of the school system, such as building maintenance and construction, and prohibits using them for staffing expenses.

Things have gotten somewhat better since there was a gas tax increase with proceeds earmarked specifically for teacher salaries, but I don't believe we are on par with Texas, even after that bill was passed. There are other problems due to low funding besides just teacher salaries–the case of a student in Ada being assigned a textbook in 2018 that was documented to have been assigned to country singer Blake Shelton for the 1982 school year comes to mind.

[Alps]

Moved political discussion. It if happens again, this will be locked.

[tolbs17]

I hope Wikipedia can show the new statistics.

[thspfc]

I find it interesting that Connecticut (really most of New England but CT specifically) is one of the richest states, yet it's also declining.

[kernals12]

I find it interesting that Connecticut (really most of New England but CT specifically) is one of the richest states, yet it's also declining.

Cold weather and high taxes

[thspfc]

I find it interesting that Connecticut (really most of New England but CT specifically) is one of the richest states, yet it's also declining.

Cold weather and high taxes

Lots of people say they like cold winters. But if we analyze things closely we see that the consensus among humans is that cold is bad, and even among plants and animals there is that same consensus.

When we ignore someone, we are "giving them the cold shoulder"
When two countries have poor relations, we describe those relations as "frosty"
When we say someone has a "cold personality" or is "cold hearted", we don't mean it positively
House Stark urged vigilance among its members by saying "Winter is coming"

This is not a coincidence, people have shown a clear preference for warm weather in surveys and in their migration patterns.

And plants and animals agree. In winter, not summer, trees shed their leaves and animals hibernate or migrate south. The Amazon Rainforest is teeming with biodiversity while Siberia is a barren wasteland.

From this, we can conclude that cold is indeed bad, and it may be a factor in the exodus of human beings from the U.S. state of Connecticut.

[Rothman]

In before lock.  WTG, kernals.

[Bruce]

I hope Wikipedia can show the new statistics.

We're working on it, but there will need to be a huge bot spree to update every city article when the full dataset is released. Not to mention creating new articles for the new CDPs.

[Duke87]

I find it interesting that Connecticut (really most of New England but CT specifically) is one of the richest states, yet it's also declining.

Declining how so? The state added 31,847 people to its population between 2010 and 2020.

That's a pretty small increase, but it's still an increase. Only MS, WV, and IL have registered actual decreases.

[Scott5114]

I hope Wikipedia can show the new statistics.

We're working on it, but there will need to be a huge bot spree to update every city article when the full dataset is released. Not to mention creating new articles for the new CDPs.

I don't envy the person who decides to code that bot. It's easy enough to update in the thousands of city articles that have nothing but what was procedurally-generated from the 2000 census and updated for the 2010 census, but if anyone has gone in and changed the wording it'll be a mess.

[OCGuy81]

The 2021 Rand McNally Atlas still has Florida at 4th for population.  It looks like 2022 is out (saw a post about this recently) so I'm guessing the ranking swap between NY and FL will be effective in the 2023 edition. 

It's interesting how NY and FL swapped places, because isn't Florida a LOT of transplanted New Yorkers, or is that an old stereotype?

[JayhawkCO]

The 2021 Rand McNally Atlas still has Florida at 4th for population.  It looks like 2022 is out (saw a post about this recently) so I'm guessing the ranking swap between NY and FL will be effective in the 2023 edition. 

It's interesting how NY and FL swapped places, because isn't Florida a LOT of transplanted New Yorkers, or is that an old stereotype?

When I was down there in December visiting my parents, the amount of New York and New Jersey plates was obscene.

Chris

[OCGuy81]

The 2021 Rand McNally Atlas still has Florida at 4th for population.  It looks like 2022 is out (saw a post about this recently) so I'm guessing the ranking swap between NY and FL will be effective in the 2023 edition. 

It's interesting how NY and FL swapped places, because isn't Florida a LOT of transplanted New Yorkers, or is that an old stereotype?

When I was down there in December visiting my parents, the amount of New York and New Jersey plates was obscene.

Chris

Ha ha ha!! That reminds me of when I'd go to spring training games in Arizona.  Spring in Arizona affords one the opportunity to see a LOT of license plates from the Midwest.  I'd say Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa were the most plentiful.

[webny99]

It's interesting how NY and FL swapped places, because isn't Florida a LOT of transplanted New Yorkers, or is that an old stereotype?

Yes to both. However, they "swapped places" close to a decade ago now... as early as 2013 or 2014 according to Census estimates. Knowing what we know now, though, I suspect the yearly Census estimates throughout the 2010's were too bullish on Florida and too bearish on New York. 2016 or 2017 is probably more like it.

[hotdogPi]

August 12, 1 PM EDT. Put it on your calendar.

[Roadgeekteen]

August 12, 1 PM EDT. Put it on your calendar.

Happens to also be my birthday!

[CNGL-Leudimin]

August 12, 7 PM CEST. Put it on your calendar.

Fixed for me .

[SP Cook]

The (pay walled) Wall Street Journal has started a series on redistricting speculation, starting, oddly enough with WV.  Quotes several people, including redistricting chairman Charlie Trump (no relation).  WV has always divided naturally north and south, But Sen. Trump seems to favor dividing the state along a line near I-79, meaning E-W, with Monongalia county in one district and the growing eastern panhandle in the other.  Have not seen a map, but this seems to make little sense, as there are way more people west of I-79 than east of it, and, of course, that doesn't say what they would do with the area south of it.

[hotdogPi]

Have not seen a map, but this seems to make little sense, as there are way more people west of I-79 than east of it, and, of course, that doesn't say what they would do with the area south of it.

Congressional districts within a state must have equal population.

[SP Cook]

Yes, I know that.  That is why I said it made little sense.

[webny99]

So I am hoping someone can fill me in here - What exactly is being released at 1PM today? Will we get all of the town, city, and county population data, or will we have to wait for that?

[NWI_Irish96]

So I am hoping someone can fill me in here - What exactly is being released at 1PM today? Will we get all of the town, city, and county population data, or will we have to wait for that?

So, traditionally, when the Census bureau releases redistricting data, which includes population counts down to the block level, they release the raw data files and put it out in a user-friendly form on the website at the same time.

This year, because of the COVID delays, only the raw-data version is being released today and the user-friendly version will be about a month later. If you don't have the software and experience in dealing with enormous data filed, today's release won't be useful to you beyond what media outlets mine out of the files and report.

[webny99]

So, traditionally, when the Census bureau releases redistricting data, which includes population counts down to the block level, they release the raw data files and put it out in a user-friendly form on the website at the same time.

This year, because of the COVID delays, only the raw-data version is being released today and the user-friendly version will be about a month later. If you don't have the software and experience in dealing with enormous data filed, today's release won't be useful to you beyond what media outlets mine out of the files and report.

Thanks - that is interesting. So the city and county population figures won't necessarily be publicly available yet. Do you know if there is an estimated date of when that will be released?

[hotdogPi]

So I am hoping someone can fill me in here - What exactly is being released at 1PM today? Will we get all of the town, city, and county population data, or will we have to wait for that?

So, traditionally, when the Census bureau releases redistricting data, which includes population counts down to the block level, they release the raw data files and put it out in a user-friendly form on the website at the same time.

This year, because of the COVID delays, only the raw-data version is being released today and the user-friendly version will be about a month later. If you don't have the software and experience in dealing with enormous data filed, today's release won't be useful to you beyond what media outlets mine out of the files and report.

Will it be human-readable enough to update Wikipedia?