The metro Detroit region's low unemployment rate, booming rate of construction permits and millennial population and per capita income growth beating national averages is not enough to gloss over the hard truth about an educational attainment rate trailing peer regions.

The Detroit Regional Chamber's State of the Region report offers yet another sobering assessment of where Southeast Michigan lags most — and it starts in the classrooms of K-12 schools and continues at the campuses of public and private colleges.

"On K-12, I think it's safe to say Michigan is a losing team in a losing league," Detroit Chamber CEO Sandy Baruah said in an interview for the Crain's "Detroit Rising" podcast.

The percentage of adults in the region with a post-secondary degree or credential stands at 40.3 percent, well behind competing regions like St. Louis (43.5 percent), Pittsburgh (45.2 percent) and Minneapolis (52 percent).

"We continue to shallow against our national competitors and the United States as a whole continues to shallow against our (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) competitors," Baruah said. "So it's not just your neighbor's school district that is struggling — all of our school districts are struggling, even in some of the most affluent neighborhoods in the state."

The Detroit Chamber uses its annual State of the Region report to benchmark the region's economic progress. Baruah will present the report's findings to chamber members Tuesday at a luncheon at Ford Field.