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Managing the States
By Peter Harkness
For the fourth time in almost a decade, we present a report card on the quality of management in all 50 states.
As in the past, it is the result of a yearlong collaboration among Governing, the Pew Center on the States and a group of academic experts from four different colleges and universities. It has involved compiling and analyzing data from an electronic survey, completed by all but a handful of states, and then interviewing about 1,400 officials from the executive and legislative branches, as well as outside observers of every state government. It is a massive job, although one that we have streamlined considerably over the years. For the best inside look I've ever seen at how the Government Performance Project really operates, click here.
I know that most readers immediately rush through the pages of this report to see how their state fared in the grades. That's understandable. But let me urge you in the strongest terms to then return to the introduction to read the analyses of what we found in general and in each of the four areas we assess — information, money, people and infrastructure.
Grading the States '08 Video:
Watch the March 3 panel discussion. (Windows Media Player required)
Featuring:
• Introduction by Susan K. Urahn, Managing Director, Pew Center on the States
• Overview by Neal C. Johnson, Director, Government Performance Project, Pew Center on the States
• Panel moderated by Peter Harkness, Editor and Publisher, Governing, with Georgia Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue, Michigan Democratic Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm and Susan K. Urahn
This broad analysis offers up the best snapshot of the status of public-sector management at the state level that exists anywhere. I'd argue that focusing on states makes sense because they manage much of American government — not only their own programs but more than $400 billion in federal programs as well.
As always, we know that some readers will be delighted and others deflated by what they read about their own states or agencies. We admit that this is not an exact science, but we get as close to the truth as we can.
And as always, the principal writers and guiding editors of this report are the husband-wife team of Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene, who are by far the most experienced journalists in this country covering public performance. They write the magazine's management column and produce our popular monthly e-mail newsletter on the subject, so to a great extent this huge effort also helps inform their reporting in these areas.
Finally, the Pew Center on the States, under the energetic direction of Susan Urahn, again has supported the academic side of the project, as well as production of the report. But this year, the Center significantly expanded its contribution to the work in the trenches, for which we are grateful.