evidence: These differences have many speculating that Texas’ approach of lower taxes and limited government is better than California’s model of higher taxes and stronger regulation for fostering economic growth and a brighter future. And there is no shortage of news stories about companies moving from California to Texas and other states with lower tax rates. At the same time, many maintain that California remains the dominant destination for venture capital funding and other drivers of innovation, while also noting some of the downsides of Texas’ lower spending on programs related to health, education, and other social priorities. [...] Therefore, on this (highly imperfect) metric, Texas government outperforms California despite the Lone Star State’s much lower per pupil expenditures.[7] This may partly reflect the fact that in Texas the state scores well on holding its public K-12 schools accountable (with strong ratings on two of three metrics used in a state-by-state assessment) — as allowed for by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act — while in contrast California scores poorly (with a weak rating on all three metrics) (Fordham Institute, 2017). [...] California and Texas have much to celebrate in recent years but also multiple fronts on which improvement is needed. Economically, each state has become significantly more powerful. Texas has seen a population boom while California’s growth has been in per capita incomes and GDP. With respect to other measures of well-being, California excels on health outcomes but fares poorly on housing affordability and air quality while Texas is the opposite in all three cases.