We know that Governor Gina Raimondo is a DFER favorite, but according to a new study, Rhode Island is one of the worst run states in the nation.
Rhode Island is one of the worst run states in the U.S., according to a report released earlier this month. The report evaluated 20 measures of state finances, economy, job market, and social-economic measures.
According to 24/7 Wall Street’s survey of Best Run States in America, Rhode Island is the worst run state in New England and the tenth worst run state in the country, ranking 40th overall.
About RI, 24/7 Wall Street writes:
“Rhode Island ranks as the worst-run state in New England and the broader Northeast. Rhode Island has accumulated some of the most debt of any state, and is one of just four states in which total outstanding debt is greater than annual revenue. Partially as a result, Rhode Island allocated 6.1% of its general expenditure to interest payments alone, the largest share of any state.”
24/7 adds, “Rhode Island is partially economically hamstrung by relatively high unemployment, a shrinking labor force, and sluggish growth. Last year, 4.5% of workers in the state were unemployed, slightly more than the 4.4% national unemployment rate. Over the last four years, the number of people working or looking for work in the state fell by 0.4%, even as the U.S. labor force grew 3.4%. Rhode Island’s 0.7% GDP growth in 2017 was less than one-third of the 2.2% national growth.”
Please don’t add more charter schools as the cure for all this mismanagement.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I believe that West Virginia has the dishonor of being the worst-run state in the Union. Sad.
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The richest man in the state is Governor of West Virginia. A billionaire in the midst of poverty. He turned MAGA after his election.
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By this list, Rhode Island is the 40th worst state and West Virginia is the 46th worst. Worse than West Virginia on this list are Mississippi, Alaska, New Mexico, and Louisiana.
I am not sure why having a dysfunctional state government is a good reason to have the state government in charge of education.
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How about having school districts in charge of schools?
Businesses fail often. Their primary goal is shareholder profits. They are the worst choice for running schools because they pit profits over children.
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I think there are several problems with leaving the school districts in charge of schools. The primary one is that removing state and federal regulation of schools would likely reduce, if not eliminate, requirements for equal access to education. A second issue is that reverting to local funding will make unequal spending across school districts more unequal.
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I’m for government control ofpublic schools with a balance of federal, state and local oversight.
No private control.
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But I assume private control of post secondary education is just peachy?
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Teaching Economist,
For many years, there has been a sharp dividing line between K-12 education and postsecondary education.
K-12 education is controlled by the public and funded by the public.
In higher education, there are institutions that are private and public.
I don’t have a problem with this distinction.
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Just appealing to the status quo is not really an argument though. Why should there be a sharp distinction between the education of high school seniors and college freshman?
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Teaching Economist,
Back in the 1990s, when I worked in the first Bush Administration, I made the same argument you make now. If federal funds support private colleges, why not private schools. When I realized that there is good reason for the distinction, I understood that sending public money to private and religious schools was opening a Pandora’s Box. Private colleges that accept public funds accept federal regulations. Private and religious schools want the money without regulation. Young children are far more susceptible to religious indoctrinatuon than adults. If the parallelism leads to public funding of religious schools, it will be the end of their freedom as regulations will surely follow, if not this year then in the future. The Founding Fathers were suspicious of Establishing religion with public subsidy. They were far wiser than we and had a better sense of history.
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History repeating. Rep. Fernand St. Germain was a corrupt member of the House who was largely responsible for creating the Savings & Loan crisis of the 1980s. And the response to it led to the breakdown of the appropriations process, accelerated by Gingrich, and crisis funding by continuing resolutions and omnibus appropriations bills.
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The conscience-deprived Raimondo gave state retirees’ money to hedge funders. Gina and other Neo-liberals who are very similar to the Koch bros. inflicted the crises on R.I. Not surprisingly, the Koch’s home state of Kansas is also failing.
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Thanks for sharing the study, Diane. It names the following as the top 5 ‘best run” states; #1 Oregon, #2 Utah, #3, Washington, #4 Minnesota, #5 Iowa
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