We're #8

CNN has ranked the smartest states, according to some magical formula they created based on, among other things, 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.

1. Massachusetts
2. Connecticut
3. Vermont
4. New Jersey
5. Wisconsin
6. New York
7. Minnesota
8. Iowa
9. Pennsylvania
10. Montana

If you're wondering about our neighbors:
13. Nebraska
22. South Dakota
26. Missouri

I saw this on the Yin Blog, which states: "I'm pretty sure that Iowa is, according to this (silly) ranking, the highest of the states that voted for Bush."

My question: if Iowans are so smart, how do you explain this?

Or this?

Feel free to join in poking fun at our state on the comments. . . .

UPDATE:
As Nelle points out, the chicken dance did not originate in Iowa, though it is a fairly regular wedding tradition for a bunch of drunken Iowans to make idiots out of themselves doing it. It actually originated in Tulsa. And they admit it. Which goes a log way toward explaining their ranking:

40. Okalahoma