Earlier this week we commented on Washington’s No. 1 position in the U.S. News “Best States”rankings. It pains us to acknowledge that we missed an opportunity to contrast it with our own Opportunity Washington Scorecard.
It was an opportunity the Everett Herald editorial board did not miss. A snippet from the editorial, which we recommend.
Opportunity Washington knows a little about this game, having published its own similar rankings in recent years. The effort comes from a partnership of the Association of Washington Business, Washington Roundtable and Washington Research Council. While noting that such comparisons can be subjective, Opportunity Washington said it found U.S. News and World Report’s rankings well done and useful.
Useful, because like any report card, it offers a starting point to review what’s being done well and where improvement is needed.
In Opportunity Washington’s admittedly more critical and business-focused judgment, Washington ranked only 22nd in its scorecard from last spring. In its accounting, Utah, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Virginia and Indiana were the top five states.
As the Herald writes, there’s some subjectivity in these things, in the measures selected, the weights assigned the metrics, and so on.
Because each ranking uses different criteria and sources of data, an apples-to-apples (of course) comparison of the two rankings wouldn’t be fair; each has its own purposes. But Opportunity Washington, because its interests are in this state and are focused on informing policy and programs here, takes this a little more seriously than a national media outlet.
Many thanks to the Herald for catching the opportunity we missed and for the thoughtful discussion of the rankings. And, again, let us encourage readers to check out our most recent Scorecard.
