Mr. Swankoski claims in his Tuesday letter ("Colleges more liberal due to groupthink," April 12) that it is a myth that "states that are liberal are smarter than states that are conservative."

When I read this, I decided to look this so called "myth" up. According to a survey by Morgan Quitno Press, of hundreds of public school systems in all 50 states, states were graded on a variety of factors based on how they compare to the national average. These included such positive attributes as per-pupil expenditures, public high school graduation rates, average class size, student reading and math proficiency, and pupil-teacher ratios. States received negative points for high drop-out rates and physical violence.

Perhaps this is a surprise to Mr. Swankowski, but eight of the nine top states (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, Wisconsin, New York, Minnesota, Iowa, and Pennsylvania) are "blue" or liberal states according to the 2004 presdiential election. In addition, the bottom seven states (Alabama, Alaska, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico) are "red" states.

Well, after all, maybe it really is not a "myth" if one looks at the rankings.