Wis ranks well in Best States, but it isn't due to Walker or WisGOP

As our Fair Governor let us know, US News and World Report came out with their "Best States" survey, and Wisconsin fared pretty well overall.

.@usnews ranks Wisconsin as the 11th best state in the nation in its 2018 #BestStates rankings. https://t.co/qllVjQUfNQ pic.twitter.com/SRVAbL3CyG

— Governor Walker (@GovWalker) February 27, 2018

That 11th place standing was good for 3rd in the Midwest, behind Iowa (#1) and Minnesota (#2). Here is the link to show how Wisconsin measured up, not only for the main categories, but for the sub-categories that went into determining the overall numbers. However, I have a warning- you might be stuck in there a while, as there are a lot of ways to slice and dice up those rankings.

And as I looked into those figures, all of a sudden, Wisconsin didn't look so impressive. Especially on figures related to our state's economic competitiveness and infrastructure, as I tweeted to others earlier today.

Also - what Wis did well in were things we've ALWAYS done well in.
Voting (2nd?), Pension funding (3rd), Lack of food insecurity (6th), HS grad rate (6th), Social Support (7th), Low uninsured rate (9th).
Scotty hasn't been able to screw this up...yet.#wiresist #wiunion #wigov

— JakeEdwards (@JakeMadtown) February 27, 2018

In fact, in many of these statistics, we were doing even better before Walker took office. This includes the rate of people without health insurance (7th in 2010, 9th in the survey), HS graduation rate (2nd in 2010-11, 6th in the survey), and violent crime rates (11th in 2010, 20th in the survey).

And one item that sounds good for Wisconsin in this survey doesn't end up looking so good when context is added. In the Best States survey, Wisconsin is 4th in the nation having a high number of women working vs men working. However, Wisconsin is 32nd in the nation when it comes to the pay gap between men and women. By comparison, Minnesota is 11th and Illinois is 27th, which would seem quite related to the problems Wisconsin has in attracting young, talented people compared to the states that have the Twin Cities and Chicago in them.

As you go through this list, it is obvious that items Scott Walker and the Wisconsin GOP have done nothing to improve the items we do poorly on (or acted too late in caring about, like with Internet infrastructure). But the items that Walker takes credit for, like the strong pension fund or the high level of Wisconsinites with health insurance, were things Wisconsin already was good at before Walker and WisGOP took power in 2011.

And when it comes to items like voter participation and social supports and the low number of Wisconsinites with food insecurity, Walker and WisGOP sure seem to be doing what they can to have us fall further down the US News list. If the voters of this state are stupid enough to keep them in power past November, you’ll likely see us slide into mediocrity on those measures as well.

So as usual, while Scott Walker might want to talk up Wisconsin's strong rating in some statistic or survey, he's cynically not telling you that he and WisGOP's policies have had little to do with those strong ratings. And he conveniently leaves out the many areas where we are falling further behind in the Age of Fitzwalkerstan, with no hope of getting better as long as he and his Koch/ALEC errand boys are in charge.