New England has always cared about education. If they weren't at the top, I'd question the veracity of this. These sorts of studies are generally meaningless, though, because every significant population center has the same breakdown of
-shitty public schools in the city
-oh here's the charter/magnet exception see it's not so bad!
-amazing schools in the affluent suburbs
-passable schools in the rest of the suburbs
-educational hellholes in the sticks
-oh here's an exception to it see it's not so bad
I know Chicago and Milwaukee follow the pattern, I'm certain that the rest do, but I don't travel from one metropolis to another to assess their schools, not yet, at least.