2026 Compare Cities Education:
Santa Cruz, CA vs Rochester, MN

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Highlights
- Rochester spends 10.2% less per student than Santa Cruz.
- The Student Teacher Ratio is 7.5% lower in Rochester than in Santa Cruz. (lower means fewer students in each classroom).
- Rochester had 1.4% fewer residents who had graduated High School compared to Santa Cruz
 Santa Cruz, CARochester, MNUnited States
 Expend. per Student  Unlock$14,702$15,905
 Educ. Expend. per Student$13,552  Unlock$13,142
 Instr. Expend. per Student  Unlock$7,869$7,999
 Pupil/Teacher Ratio21.84  Unlock16.23
 Students per Librarian  Unlock9264573
 Students per Counselor473  Unlock530
 Grade School Educ.  Unlock2.7%4.8%
 Some High School Educ.1.9%  Unlock6.3%
 High School Educ.  Unlock94.4%88.9%
 Some College Educ.19.7%  Unlock20.0%
 2 yr College Grad.  Unlock11.3%8.7%
 4 yr College Grad.56.6%  Unlock33.7%
 Masters Grad.  Unlock13.1%9.3%
 Professional Degree4.9%  Unlock2.2%
 Doctorate Degree  Unlock3.6%1.5%
Reviews for Santa Cruz    44 Reviews

I lived in the Santa Cruz area for 20 years. UCSC alum. Our kids were born there. There are wonderful things about Santa Cruz, but also many serious problems that we  More

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Over 6 years ago

I have been here for four generations! My kids are the fifth. I guess that should tell you how wonderful it is here, at least for us. It's so cool to have world class  More

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I was born over the hill in San Jose area, and as a kid I loved coming over to the boardwalk. Santa Cruz has always been and always will be a town of diversity,  More

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Reviews for Rochester    31 Reviews

Roch (and Minnesota) is a great place IF you live off the govt dole; subsidize undesirable things (through generous welfare benefits, lax law enforcement and sentences,  More

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Rochester is very vanilla. As a progressive, this place is not good. The area leans conservative and you'll see Trump signs everywhere... so that tells you the type of  More

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Over 6 years ago

I moved here over 20 years ago from California and I was in shock for the first couple of years that people actually lived in such a cold climate! Winter starts around  More

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