Cedar Rapids ranked second in list of ‘Best Places to be a Teacher’

CEDAR RAPIDS — Cedar Rapids is the second-best place in the country to be a teacher, according to a recent SmartAsset report.

The personal finance technology company ranked 133 metro areas using metrics such as average income, union strength, housing costs and proficiency rates in math and English.

With teachers earning an average of $54,975, the city's low housing costs helped boost its ranking, as did Cedar Rapids students' math and reading proficiency scores — the third-best of the cities ranked.

Cedar Rapids joined three other Iowa metros that ranked in the Top 15. The Omaha-Council Bluffs area was ranked No. 4, Des Moines-West Des Moines was No. 6 and Davenport-Moline-Rock Island ranked 14th.

Because of the state's strong showing, SmartAsset dubbed Iowa the 'Land of the learned' in the report.

'These metro areas score strongly in our education metrics like graduation rate and student proficiency rate,' the report said. 'Plus, these metros tend to be relatively affordable for teachers.'

Authors of the report considered average incomes, income growth, employment growth, spending per student, union strength, housing costs, graduation rates, proficiency rates and violent crime rates in the ranking.

Data used came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau, Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the U.S. Department of Education and the FBI.

Earlier this year, SmartAsset also ranked Cedar Rapids as the No. 1 best place for children.

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