May 7, 2024 • 9 mins
This is the 500th episode of Beyond the News. We speak with US News governmental managing editor Gary Emerling about their 2024 Best States survey. Florida makes the top 10 overall and scores very highly in two important categories. Find out more by listening here.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. Every year US News, as you
know, they do many rankings,and one of the rankings that they offer
every year is the Best States Analysis. They break down dozens of metrics and
thousands of data points to capture howthe states serve their residents across eight main
categories including healthcare, education, economy, and infrastructure. And we have Gary
(00:25):
Emmerling with US News who has workedon that and joins US Now and Beyond
the News. Gary Emmerling, Welcome, Thanks Gordon, great to be here.
Well, first of all, overall, it looks like Florida did very
well again in this Best States ranking, So tell us about that if you
would. Yeah, Florida is numbernine overall. It's the only Southern state
(00:49):
in our top ten. It's reallybolstered by strong performances in education and economy,
where those are two of the eightcategories as you mentioned, and it
came in number one in both ofthose, which really helped its performance overall.
Now, what are the categories thatyou use and how do you weigh
them? Sure? So we awhile back we surveyed people about three separate
(01:12):
times, about twenty thousand people eachtime, and we averaged the responses basically
asking them what is most important toyou about your state and what should be
the most important to state government leadersand things like that, and we gave
them some choices, and so itshook out that healthcare was number one,
Education is number two, economy wasnumber three, Infrastructure, opportunity and fiscal
(01:37):
stability, crime and corrections, andnatural environment are kind of rounding out the
remaining five. So we wait thecategories according to those survey results. So
healthcare, as I mentioned, isnumber one, it's about sixteen percent.
Education is just right behind it atabout sixteen percent as well an economy,
and like I said, at thebottom of cut natural environment, which is
(01:57):
about nine percent. So overall thingsthings have a healthy weight. It's just
kind of a matter of what people'spriorities shook out to speaking. Now,
you give Florida top marks for education, and higher education really factors in on
that, and we are listed inthe top echelon in graduation rates and tuition,
and a lot of that I'm surehas to do with the cost of
(02:20):
higher education as well in this state, and I know we rank well in
that. And are we the bestdate for higher education or just the best
bang for the buck or does itgo beyond that great question. So,
yeah, our data is heavily focusedon graduation rates. And then there's there's
a tuition and fees metric, whichFlorida leads the country. And then that's
(02:42):
basically looking at for in state studentspublic for in state student excuse me,
at public, at public universities orcolleges, what they're paying. This does
not include room and board, butjust tuition and fees. And Florida's got
the lowest amount. I think it'sabout four to five thousand. It's not
as high as many other states.It also does you know, Florida does
(03:04):
very well, and it's what Ilike to call kind of timely graduation rates.
So we look at, you know, students who started a two year
degree and complete it in four yearsand then students who started a four year
degree and complete it in six years, and they're number two in the country
for both of those. And thatkind of combined along with a couple there's
there's a couple other metrics. Oneis the level of federal debt that people
(03:28):
have a graduation among residents twenty fourand younger. And then there is a
sort of a general higher education attainment, so how many the share of the
population that has at least an associatedegree. On those two metrics, Florida
is a little more middle of thepack number twenty five and number twenty six.
But as far as the graduation ratesin tuition and fees, that's really
(03:50):
where Florida excels and they come inat the top there and that's really driving
that number one overall ranking and highereducation. Now we're listed as number as
in the top ten in your servefor K twelve education. What are the
metrics you use there? Yes,so we look at both NAEP the nation's
report card the eighth graders reading andmath scores there, and Florida again is
(04:13):
a little more middle of the packthere, number thirty two and number twenty
one, but the state really doesexcel in college readiness. It's number five,
and that metric we look at basicallythe share of twelfth graders who have
scored in the seventy fifth percentile orhigher on the SAT or the ACT,
and Florida's number five there, soit's students are performing well. And then
(04:35):
it's also got the twelfth highest shareor rate of preschool enrollment in the country,
So that's another metric overall, thoseare kind of combining together along you
know, relative to other states performanceto give the number ten ranking in pre
K through twelfth subcategory, and thencombined with higher education, that really fuels
the number one category overall in education, number one ranking. Excuse me.
(05:00):
Looking at the economy, I seeyou rank us at the top there among
the states. And it seems thata lot of that is the tax burden
and also the migration into the state. And yet as much as our business
leadership has talked about areas such asincreasing patents and company headquarters and venture capital,
(05:24):
those are not categories that we leadon. So it sounds like that
your numbers are very much based ontax rate and migration. The lack of
a state income tax for one thing. So talk to us about that if
you could. Sure. Yeah,as you mentioned, so as far as
company headquarters and patent creation, itis it's you know, Florida's not bad.
(05:46):
It's number thirty number thirty three,you know, in those areas.
But I think what's really driving theeconomy, at least according to our data,
is the growth factor. Right,So you've got a net migration rate
that second in the in the country. And you know, for for listeners,
that just means, you know,more people are coming into the state
than are going out. And Ithink you guys are no stranger to that
(06:09):
down there, right. People loveto move to Florida. That's that's what
happens. Job growth, There's beena lot of job creation there and and
gross domestic product growth is you know, Florida leads the nation in that over
the three years that we analyze,so there there is also like a decent
rate of businesses starting in Florida accordingto our Business creation metric, Florida's number
(06:30):
seven there. So overall, it'sreally the growth factor that's driving things.
As you mentioned though too, thetax burden is second lowest in the in
the country according to the way wemeasure it. It's the share of personal
income I believe according to government basedon government revenues. So yeah, they
do. You know, Florida hasa low tax burden. But it really
(06:54):
is overall growth in the job frontand in just people moving to the state
that I think is fueling the economythere. What are some areas that Florida
could stand to bring up its score. Florida's worst score is in our opportunity
category. Now that doesn't mean it'sbad at everything, but it is.
It is number in that category.It is number forty five in the opportunity
(07:15):
category, and that's broken down intothree different areas. One is economic opportunity,
one is affordability, and one isequality, an area where a lot
of states, quite frankly, haveto grow. Florida does actually fairly well
relatively speaking on equality. It's numbertwelve, But where it struggles is economic
opportunity and affordability. And it lookslike cost of living relatively speaking, is
(07:39):
high as far as you know,prices for items compared to a national benchmark.
Our metric looking at housing affordability kindof the cost of shelter is also
high. It's number forty. Therealso has a relative relatively i would say,
unequal dispersion of income. There's athere's kind of a wonky metric called
(08:01):
the Giny Index, but it's somethingthat a lot of folks use to measure
equality and income and Florida's number fortyfive on that one, So there's some
improvement to be had there. Ibelieve Food insecurity is also another metric within
that category, and that's another thingwhere Florida was actually among the states where
food and security worsened the most.It climbed by about fifteen percent to eleven
(08:24):
point four percent between twenty twenty andtwenty twenty two. So yeah, I
mean, I think these rankings though, like we said, like we try
to stress to folks, there's there'sthings that states do well, there's things
that are There's plenty room for improvementin any state, and hopefully we can
help shine a loight on some thingswhere folks can focus on those things and
(08:46):
make progress. A lot of data, a lot to digest. Gary Emerling
with US News and we're talking abouttheir Best States annual rankings. Thank you
very much for joining us on Beyondthe News a problem. Thanks for having
me. Gordon
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. Every year US News, as you
know, they do many rankings,and one of the rankings that they offer
every year is the Best States Analysis. They break down dozens of metrics and
thousands of data points to capture howthe states serve their residents across eight main
categories including healthcare, education, economy, and infrastructure. And we have Gary
(00:25):
Emmerling with US News who has workedon that and joins US Now and Beyond
the News. Gary Emmerling, Welcome, Thanks Gordon, great to be here.
Well, first of all, overall, it looks like Florida did very
well again in this Best States ranking, So tell us about that if you
would. Yeah, Florida is numbernine overall. It's the only Southern state
(00:49):
in our top ten. It's reallybolstered by strong performances in education and economy,
where those are two of the eightcategories as you mentioned, and it
came in number one in both ofthose, which really helped its performance overall.
Now, what are the categories thatyou use and how do you weigh
them? Sure? So we awhile back we surveyed people about three separate
(01:12):
times, about twenty thousand people eachtime, and we averaged the responses basically
asking them what is most important toyou about your state and what should be
the most important to state government leadersand things like that, and we gave
them some choices, and so itshook out that healthcare was number one,
Education is number two, economy wasnumber three, Infrastructure, opportunity and fiscal
(01:37):
stability, crime and corrections, andnatural environment are kind of rounding out the
remaining five. So we wait thecategories according to those survey results. So
healthcare, as I mentioned, isnumber one, it's about sixteen percent.
Education is just right behind it atabout sixteen percent as well an economy,
and like I said, at thebottom of cut natural environment, which is
(01:57):
about nine percent. So overall thingsthings have a healthy weight. It's just
kind of a matter of what people'spriorities shook out to speaking. Now,
you give Florida top marks for education, and higher education really factors in on
that, and we are listed inthe top echelon in graduation rates and tuition,
and a lot of that I'm surehas to do with the cost of
(02:20):
higher education as well in this state, and I know we rank well in
that. And are we the bestdate for higher education or just the best
bang for the buck or does itgo beyond that great question. So,
yeah, our data is heavily focusedon graduation rates. And then there's there's
a tuition and fees metric, whichFlorida leads the country. And then that's
(02:42):
basically looking at for in state studentspublic for in state student excuse me,
at public, at public universities orcolleges, what they're paying. This does
not include room and board, butjust tuition and fees. And Florida's got
the lowest amount. I think it'sabout four to five thousand. It's not
as high as many other states.It also does you know, Florida does
(03:04):
very well, and it's what Ilike to call kind of timely graduation rates.
So we look at, you know, students who started a two year
degree and complete it in four yearsand then students who started a four year
degree and complete it in six years, and they're number two in the country
for both of those. And thatkind of combined along with a couple there's
there's a couple other metrics. Oneis the level of federal debt that people
(03:28):
have a graduation among residents twenty fourand younger. And then there is a
sort of a general higher education attainment, so how many the share of the
population that has at least an associatedegree. On those two metrics, Florida
is a little more middle of thepack number twenty five and number twenty six.
But as far as the graduation ratesin tuition and fees, that's really
(03:50):
where Florida excels and they come inat the top there and that's really driving
that number one overall ranking and highereducation. Now we're listed as number as
in the top ten in your servefor K twelve education. What are the
metrics you use there? Yes,so we look at both NAEP the nation's
report card the eighth graders reading andmath scores there, and Florida again is
(04:13):
a little more middle of the packthere, number thirty two and number twenty
one, but the state really doesexcel in college readiness. It's number five,
and that metric we look at basicallythe share of twelfth graders who have
scored in the seventy fifth percentile orhigher on the SAT or the ACT,
and Florida's number five there, soit's students are performing well. And then
(04:35):
it's also got the twelfth highest shareor rate of preschool enrollment in the country,
So that's another metric overall, thoseare kind of combining together along you
know, relative to other states performanceto give the number ten ranking in pre
K through twelfth subcategory, and thencombined with higher education, that really fuels
the number one category overall in education, number one ranking. Excuse me.
(05:00):
Looking at the economy, I seeyou rank us at the top there among
the states. And it seems thata lot of that is the tax burden
and also the migration into the state. And yet as much as our business
leadership has talked about areas such asincreasing patents and company headquarters and venture capital,
(05:24):
those are not categories that we leadon. So it sounds like that
your numbers are very much based ontax rate and migration. The lack of
a state income tax for one thing. So talk to us about that if
you could. Sure. Yeah,as you mentioned, so as far as
company headquarters and patent creation, itis it's you know, Florida's not bad.
(05:46):
It's number thirty number thirty three,you know, in those areas.
But I think what's really driving theeconomy, at least according to our data,
is the growth factor. Right,So you've got a net migration rate
that second in the in the country. And you know, for for listeners,
that just means, you know,more people are coming into the state
than are going out. And Ithink you guys are no stranger to that
(06:09):
down there, right. People loveto move to Florida. That's that's what
happens. Job growth, There's beena lot of job creation there and and
gross domestic product growth is you know, Florida leads the nation in that over
the three years that we analyze,so there there is also like a decent
rate of businesses starting in Florida accordingto our Business creation metric, Florida's number
(06:30):
seven there. So overall, it'sreally the growth factor that's driving things.
As you mentioned though too, thetax burden is second lowest in the in
the country according to the way wemeasure it. It's the share of personal
income I believe according to government basedon government revenues. So yeah, they
do. You know, Florida hasa low tax burden. But it really
(06:54):
is overall growth in the job frontand in just people moving to the state
that I think is fueling the economythere. What are some areas that Florida
could stand to bring up its score. Florida's worst score is in our opportunity
category. Now that doesn't mean it'sbad at everything, but it is.
It is number in that category.It is number forty five in the opportunity
(07:15):
category, and that's broken down intothree different areas. One is economic opportunity,
one is affordability, and one isequality, an area where a lot
of states, quite frankly, haveto grow. Florida does actually fairly well
relatively speaking on equality. It's numbertwelve, But where it struggles is economic
opportunity and affordability. And it lookslike cost of living relatively speaking, is
(07:39):
high as far as you know,prices for items compared to a national benchmark.
Our metric looking at housing affordability kindof the cost of shelter is also
high. It's number forty. Therealso has a relative relatively i would say,
unequal dispersion of income. There's athere's kind of a wonky metric called
(08:01):
the Giny Index, but it's somethingthat a lot of folks use to measure
equality and income and Florida's number fortyfive on that one, So there's some
improvement to be had there. Ibelieve Food insecurity is also another metric within
that category, and that's another thingwhere Florida was actually among the states where
food and security worsened the most.It climbed by about fifteen percent to eleven
(08:24):
point four percent between twenty twenty andtwenty twenty two. So yeah, I
mean, I think these rankings though, like we said, like we try
to stress to folks, there's there'sthings that states do well, there's things
that are There's plenty room for improvementin any state, and hopefully we can
help shine a loight on some thingswhere folks can focus on those things and
(08:46):
make progress. A lot of data, a lot to digest. Gary Emerling
with US News and we're talking abouttheir Best States annual rankings. Thank you
very much for joining us on Beyondthe News a problem. Thanks for having
me. Gordon
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