This article first appeared at JBartlett.org.
It seems not that long ago when New Englanders thought of the South and Southwest as economic and educational backwaters. Boston’s elite universities, vibrant economy, fashionable culture and well-funded public schools gave many New Englanders, particularly those in Massachusetts, a snooty attitude toward places like Mississippi, Florida, Texas, Arizona and the Carolinas.
That attitude is fading as more jobs, employers and young people move South and Southwest and as those state economies and education systems improve.
From 2009 to 2024, only one New England state — Massachusetts — had a population growth rate above the national average, according to a Pew analysis of U.S. Census data. The South is America’s fastest-growing region. Last year, two U.S. cities were added to the list of those with at least 1 million residents: Jacksonville, Florida, and Fort Worth, Texas.
The last Census that recorded Jacksonville’s population being smaller than Boston’s was in 1980. Florida is experiencing a new gold rush in wealth in the form of a “trillion-dollar domestic migration boom.”
New England looked down on the South and Southwest the way Europe looked down on Americans. As with Europeans, many New Englanders didn’t realize until it was too late that they were the ones being left behind.
As most of New England made fun of those hicks from North America’s underbelly, those hicks cut business taxes, gave parents educational options and erected fewer obstacles to residential and commercial construction.
And so this month The Boston Globe, the establishment voice of New England conventional wisdom, ran two pieces pointing out how certain Southern states were leaving Massachusetts and other New England states behind.
In an editorial, the Globe sounded an alarm about Massachusetts’ economic competitiveness. It’s great that Massachusetts lured Hasbro from Connecticut, the Globe wrote, but “can it compete with North Carolina?”
The Globe cited a Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation report that ranked Massachusetts last in the nation in private-sector job growth. (New Hampshire ranked a lowly 42nd.)
“Hasbro’s move to Boston is unquestionably good news,” the Globe wrote. “But it shouldn’t obscure that the state is facing serious, systemic headwinds, and policymakers need to be focusing on the broader business climate to attract new businesses and keep the ones we have.”
Someone’s been paying attention. The Globe went on to cite the conservative Tax Foundation report ranking Massachusetts 41st on state business tax climate. (New Hampshire ranks sixth, one spot ahead of Texas.)
The Globe continued:
“The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation report put the state in the bottom 10 nationally on energy costs, health care premiums, infant child care costs, commuting times and housing costs.
“No wonder that while Massachusetts lost jobs between 2023 and 2024, New York, Florida, Texas and North Carolina all saw gains close to or over 1 percent.
“North Carolina is especially notable because it competes for many of the same high-tech businesses as Massachusetts. In 2024, North Carolina saw a $10.8 billion expansion of its life science industry when 25 companies announced expansions or new facilities.
“Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, there’s a glut of unused laboratory space. In fact, Hasbro is slated to move into a space that its developer describes as a ‘laboratory building’ in the Seaport.”
In a Globe Magazine essay days earlier, staff writer Christopher Huffaker described how New England states got complacent in their approach to public education, shifting away from “test-based accountability policies” and failing to ensure their students, particularly the lowest-performing ones, were learning.
“Meanwhile, leaders first in Mississippi and then in neighboring states embraced — and enforced — a phonics-driven reading curriculum and a back-to-basics math approach,” Huffaker wrote. “State leaders across parties and administrations demanded that all students must be learning, with a threat of consequences for districts and schools that failed.”
National assessment test scores show huge academic gains in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.
It’s important that the Globe has noticed these trends and called out New England political leaders for their complacency as so much of the region declines. It signals that a cultural barrier has been broken.
Progressive metrics of state success — such as levels of government spending on mass transit, district public schools and welfare programs — are not the metrics most businesses and individuals use when choosing where to live and work. Granite Staters figured this out decades ago. Now it’s dawning on opinion makers in Boston.
Good government services matter. But so do tax rates, government return on investment, educational quality (not total spending) and overall economic freedom.
We know what matters because Americans keep telling us — by voting with their feet or acing standardized tests.
The Globe’s acknowledgment of the importance of state competition based on traditional, nonprogressive metrics is great to see. It vindicates New Hampshire’s basic approach to governing, which is to build an enduring New Hampshire Advantage by making the state as economically competitive as possible.
The Globe didn’t ask this question, but it could have:
How many more people and businesses does New England have to lose before more of its leaders realize they’re competing directly with states they used to mock — and they’re losing?
