America’s four largest states — California, Texas, Florida and New York — have a lot in common. They are iconic, dynamic and diverse. Each could be formidable countries themselves.

And, yet, they are also very different in their politics and governance. California and New York are dominated by Democrats who have implemented the nation’s highest and sixth-highest marginal income tax rates, respectively, to help finance large social programs and bureaucracies. (New York’s rate rises to second-highest if New York City income tax is included.)

Texas and Florida, meanwhile, have been governed mostly by conservative Republicans for decades; they are among the few states that levy no income tax on workers, while maintaining leaner social programs.

Our big four states provide a good test case for two very different visions: Do higher taxes and bigger government actually deliver better outcomes, particularly in terms of education, poverty alleviation, and infrastructure? Or can simpler governments and lower taxes actually raise the fortunes of their citizens?

Here, the facts tell the story.

And while this analysis is simple, it suggests that the grand visions of progressives in California and New York have failed to deliver on their promises.

Neither blue state has shown any clear ability to improve the academic outcomes of their kids, alleviate poverty for those in need, or provide good roads and bridges for their people. While Texas and Florida have their share of problems, they seem to foster more upward mobility and trust in government, which partly explains why 6.4 million people have moved to those states since 2010.

California and New York are great states, with enormous built-in and historic advantages spanning generations. They deserve laws and lawmakers that live up to those qualities.

New York spends the most of any state per pupil by far at over $23,000 and nearly twice as much as the national average of around $12,000. California spends just above the national average. Meanwhile, Florida and Texas spend much less, just north of $9,000.

But the difference in outputs is actually quite small. In 2017, the National Assessment of Educational Progress found that students in New York and Texas both scored around the national average in fourth and eighth grades, as did Floridians in eighth. Florida students in fourth grade scored above the national average, while California students in both grades scored below the national average.

Minority students in Florida, meanwhile, tested among the highest in the nation across the board, with black students overall scoring 240 out of 500 on a simple average of the four tests (compared to 234 nationally) and Hispanic students scoring 250 (compared to 240 nationally). In Texas, minority students also performed better than nationally (238 for blacks, 243 for Hispanics).

In New York, minority students scored just above or around the national average (236 for blacks, 237 for Hispanics), while in California they both performed below it (231 for blacks, 235 for Hispanics).

If New York workers must spend twice as much on schools, they should demand real evidence of quality. And yet, the best evidence points to the fact that their students are falling behind.

California and New York spend more on their anti-poverty initiatives than Texas and Florida by orders of magnitude.

Inclusive of Medicaid, California spent about $19,000 per person under the official poverty line in 2017, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), and New York over $21,000.

Meanwhile, Florida spent under $9,000 and Texas under $8,000. Excluding Medicaid, California spent just over $2,000 and New York over $1,200, while Florida and Texas spent almost negligible amounts.

And yet, there is no clear evidence that blue state anti-poverty spending is accomplishing much. From the end of the last recession in 2010 to 2018, the official poverty rate fell 3 percentage points in California and just 1.3 in New York, while falling 3 points in Texas and 2.8 in Florida.

The official poverty rate, which measures only market income, remains slightly higher in absolute terms in Texas and Florida than New York and California. However, according to the supplemental poverty rate, which many social scientists prefer because it includes taxes and transfers and better reflects living standards, California is the poorest state in the nation with 18 percent of its population under the poverty line, followed by 16 percent in Florida, and 14 percent in Texas and New York.

While success in alleviating poverty is not overwhelming in any of the four states, upward mobility appears to be slightly better in absolute terms in the big red states than the blue ones. Some of that could be due to the infamously high cost of living, especially due to strict zoning and housing regulations, in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. Some recent studies blame a lot of homelessness on strict zoning and land-use regulations in those cities. And, in fact, there are more homeless people in Los Angeles County alone than in Florida and Texas combined.

New York spends the most per capita of the four states on transportation at $538, according to NASBO, which is above the national average of $476. Florida, Texas, and California all spend below it at $427, $399, and $339, respectively.

On a per-mile of highway basis, Florida and New York both spend a lot, around $241,000 and $215,000, respectively, while California and Texas spend less, about $125,000 and $73,000. Those higher per-mile figures could also reflect the higher density of Florida and New York.

But while New York is spending a lot on its roads both per person and per mile in the state, there’s no evidence it provides value to the people living there. Its road quality is ranked 26th in the nation by the Federal Highway Administration, bridges 37th by the US Department of Transportation, and overall value of highways 45th by the Reason Foundation.

Florida, which spends a lot per mile, seems to be getting better value, with its roads ranking 7th and bridges ranking 3rd. Texas and California, meanwhile, are ranked as having good bridges and bad roads.

Overall, the Reason Foundation reports that Texas taxpayers are getting better value for their highways than Californians, New Yorkers and Floridians.

Ryan Fazio is a Connecticut native. He writes about politics and economics and tweets @ryanfazio.