2025 Compare Cities Education:
Bethesda, MD vs Santa Barbara, CA

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Highlights
- Santa Barbara spends 15.4% less per student than Bethesda.
- The Student Teacher Ratio is 54.1% higher in Santa Barbara than in Bethesda. (lower means fewer students in each classroom).
- Santa Barbara had 10.3% fewer residents who had graduated High School compared to Bethesda
 Bethesda, MDSanta Barbara, CAUnited States
 Expend. per Student  Unlock$16,705$15,905
 Educ. Expend. per Student$16,697  Unlock$13,142
 Instr. Expend. per Student  Unlock$7,862$7,999
 Pupil/Teacher Ratio13.63  Unlock16.23
 Students per Librarian  Unlock123874573
 Students per Counselor292  Unlock530
 Grade School Educ.  Unlock7.2%4.8%
 Some High School Educ.0.8%  Unlock6.3%
 High School Educ.  Unlock88.0%88.9%
 Some College Educ.5.0%  Unlock20.0%
 2 yr College Grad.  Unlock7.2%8.7%
 4 yr College Grad.87.9%  Unlock33.7%
 Masters Grad.  Unlock12.6%9.3%
 Professional Degree17.5%  Unlock2.2%
 Doctorate Degree  Unlock3.5%1.5%
Reviews for Bethesda    12 Reviews

Bethesda is awesome if you want to live near DC and in a relatively safe city that has few parking issues. Montgomery county has parking lots in downtown Bethesda and  More

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Amenities are plentiful, but costs continue to rise as do local and state taxes. Overall not a friendly place to  More

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Essentially an upscale suburb of Washington DC. Public transport is easy, there's plenty to do (though with none of the edginess of living closer in DC) and it's minutes  More

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Reviews for Santa Barbara    51 Reviews

I moved to Santa Barbara around 23 years ago to study at Brooks, which like most of the Santa Barbara that I knew—has been destroyed. Homelessness, drugs, gangs, high  More

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Over 4 years ago

I fell in love with Santa Barbara about thirty years ago and finally moved here a few years ago. Because of the price of homes, it is an expensive place to live. The  More

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If you like high crime, paying a $4,500 a month mortgage and crazy high taxes, this is the place for you. It’s too bad because it wasn’t always like this. When I moved  More

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