Washington Legislature average in college grads, low in lawyers

Originally published June 12, 2011 at 7:01 PM | Page modified June 12, 2011 at 7:32 PM

Washington's Legislature is Husky-dominated, mostly college-educated and very average compared to legislatures elsewhere in the country.

That's the conclusion of an analysis done by The Chronicle of Higher Education, a national newspaper that covers higher-education issues.

The Chronicle collected data on 7,000-plus state legislators across America, including whether they graduated from college ? or if they went at all.

The Chronicle plans to publish a series of stories this week that raises the question: How important is it for state legislators to hold college degrees?

Its data show that about 74 percent of Washington's legislators have a bachelor's degree, almost exactly the national average for state lawmakers, according to the study. Washington lags two other West Coast states, Oregon and California, where the percent of legislators with a college degree is 85 and 90 percent, respectively.

In fact, California has the highest percent of legislators in the country with a college degree. The state with the lowest percentage of college-educated legislators is New Hampshire, with 53 percent.

Huskies rule in Olympia: 30 of Washington's 147 legislators say they went to school at the University of Washington. Eleven hail from Washington State University, seven attended Central Washington University, and five attended Western Washington University.

In Oregon, 15 of 90 lawmakers attended the state's flagship school, the University of Oregon. In California, 13 legislators attended the University of California at Los Angeles and nine went to the University of California at Berkeley; the rest were scattered across the map.

Other top schools for Washington lawmakers: Gonzaga, Harvard and Oregon State.

Washington's Legislature has a below-average percentage of members who went to a state school ? just 45 percent went to college in Washington. The national average is 55 percent.

And the state lags in the number of legislators who are also lawyers; just 10 percent have a law degree, compared with 17 percent of legislators nationwide.

The state's lawmakers tend to be better-educated than Washington residents. According to the study, only 31 percent of Washington residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

The study is available online at http://chronicle.com/statelegislators. According to the Chronicle, education data were obtained from Project Vote Smart, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research group. The information was primarily self-reported by the legislators, either through biographical surveys or in campaign literature.

Katherine Long: 206-464-2219 or klong@seattletimes.com

Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015304719_legislators13m.html?syndication=rss

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