As a resident who won't take advantage of in-state public schools for my daughter, that's fine with me. It's that way because despite that low spending, the state is more densely packed with high quality schools than any other state, and it isn't close. Harvard, MIT, BU, BC, Tufts, Bowdoin, Bentley, Wellesley, Amherst, Williams, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Holy Cross. By contrast, Florida has one highly rated private school: Miami, despite being a much bigger state.
UConn fought this same mindset, being behind Yale, Wesleyan, Trinity in the minds of many residents years ago. But CT doesn't have a lineup of private schools like MA does. UMass has a tough lot in life. But it certainly isn't a bad school. It just has nothing that stands out. Even among local public schools UVM is much more fun and is in a cool college town/small city. URI is next to the beach. UNH is near Portsmouth, NH and is closer to Boston than UMass.