Robert Robb on Governor Napolitano's poor legacy

Great column today in the Republic by Robert Robb. (Funny, it was impossible to find the column on the Republic's website, fortunately aznewsonline carries his columns on their homepage) Some excerpts:

Arizona still ranks 49th in K-12 per-pupil operating expenditures. Our 4th grade reading scores are 47th lowest on federal tests. In math, we rank 46th...Arizona still has the fourth highest dropout rate in the country....

In her economic plan released during the 2002 campaign, Napolitano said: “We rank at the bottom of the nation in education while leading the nation in dropout rates. We have among the highest uninsured and underinsured individuals in the country, and are dangerously close to cutting the jugular of our universities. Our economy has diversified little in the last ten years, and we are facing one of the largest deficits in the nation. What is wrong with this picture?”

Putting aside the hyperbole about the universities' jugular, the picture as Napolitano is leaving is pretty much the same as when she entered...

She didn't really even advance any proposals that would materially move these markers....

Arizona ranked 37th among the states in per capita income when Napolitano took office. As she leaves, we rank 40th.

...in the final analysis, her most instructive legacy isn't in what she did, but in what she complained about but didn't change.