Posted by Keturah Hetrick on Oct. 1, 2018
When it comes to filling their staff rosters, congressional members of both parties have the pick of the litter. But, as yet another sign of the sharply divided times we live in, Democratic lawmakers surround themselves by staff with far more formal education than do Republicans, according to a
new LegiStorm tool.
Republicans make up 49 out the 50 offices with the lowest average education levels in all of Congress.
Democratic offices, meanwhile, tend to hire more aides with advanced degrees and who have attended more prestigious schools. The top 16 slots are all Democratic offices, as are 45 of the 50 most-educated offices in Congress.
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), who herself holds a lone bachelor's degree, has the highest-educated staff, on average, with two aides from her small office holding PhDs. The second-ranking member office, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), similarly counts one PhD and two JDs among his 14-person staff.
LegiStorm gave a score to each office based on educational level attained and quality of the school attended. For educational level, PhDs count more than master’s degrees, which in turn count more than bachelor’s degrees, for example. For school quality, LegiStorm used the U.S. News and World Report rankings, with various bonus points going to students who attended a top 100, top 50 or top 10 school.
LegiStorm's education-analysis tool compares only publicly available formal education records and may be skewed by a number of factors, including the proportion of entry-level versus senior-level staff, geographic distribution of high-ranked schools, and whether staffers choose to make their up-to-date education information publicly available.
Some people and organizations who "caught our eye" last week:
