Even within the state of Virginia, look at the difference between Fairfax County and Portsmouth. It's comforting to think that your peers are "beating" the national average, and I think that something we miss when we read these graphs. A reminder about both ends of an average is something we need more in life.

because Silicon Valley is in California, it's supposed to be the world's hub of tech leaders. If we have a candidate pool that is so poorly educated it doesn't bode well for sustaining that technology lead.

Palo Alto has one of the highest levels of education in the country. The rest of the bay area ranks highly as well. However that entire region only makes up less than 20% of California's population. The rest of the state brings down the average.