How bad is your city?

[Chobohoya]

I've always thought that there were a lot of problems with my hometown. Since I've started the research for a project at work, I've actually seen how badly Jacksonville compares to other cities and the state of Florida as a whole. We have a far higher percentage of births to teens, low-birthweight births, and preterm births than the state or the national average. We rank poorly in these indicators nationally as well.

Our educational system is horrendous too: we have 50-200% more crimes per student than comparable counties, fewer kids graduate, we score lower on our FCATs, and we score lower on our SATs, even though a smaller pool of kids takes them. A larger percentage of students receive out of school suspension, and all this is happening under economic circumstances that are about the same as in the other counties.

Check out your city and your state's Department of Education ( here is FL's ) for details, tell us how much your city sucks.