By VALERIE MYERS Erie has made the list of the 200 "Brainiest Bastions" in the country.
The bad news is that the city made the bottom half of the list -- for "negative brainpower."
That assessment by online business journal Portfolio.com is based on educational attainment. Most Erie area residents are not college-educated, according to U.S. Census data used in the study.
Erie is ranked at 143 on the "Brainiest" list. Cities ranked at 99 through 200 had negative scores for a minority of college-educated residents.
Erie County Executive Barry Grossman called the new rankings "not surprising" and said that they underline previous studies with similar findings and underscore the need for a community college.
"Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, both with very active, very successful community colleges, are ahead of us in this ranking," Grossman said. "Here, we commission these kind of reports, pay money for them, and they all say we need a community college. Then we ignore them, as if, what do they know. And we're behind."
Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Philadelphia are ranked among the nation's "Brainiest" cities by Portfolio.com. College graduates outnumber high school-only graduates and high school dropouts in all three cities, according to census data.
In the Erie area, 8.61 percent of residents have a graduate or professional degree; 15.35 percent have bachelor's degrees; and 23.83 percent have associate degrees or some college education, according to census data.
More area residents, a combined 52.21 percent, have not earned a high school diploma or did not continue their education beyond high school.
That's bad news economically as well as educationally, said Jim Kurre, associate professor of economics at Penn State Behrend and director of the Economic Research Institute of Erie.
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