On Medicaid, education and many other issues, the map of the United States is becoming a patchwork of conscience and callousness. People on one side of a state line have access to health care, strong public schools and colleges, and good transportation systems, while those on the other side do not. The breakdown of a sense of national unity in Washington is now reflected across the country, as more than two dozen states begin to abandon traditions of responsible government.

This is not entirely a partisan issue; several Republican governors, including Jan Brewer of Arizona and Rick Scott of Florida, have crunched the numbers and decided to support the Medicaid expansion, though their legislatures refuse to go along. But most states dominated by Republicans are cutting back on their responsibilities, while states dominated by Democrats continue to believe that government has a large role to play in maintaining the safety net.

In Kansas, for example, Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, is energetically trying to repeal the state’s income tax and replace it with an increase in the sales tax, unconcerned that the move would shift the tax burden from the wealthy to the poor and middle class. But some extremist lawmakers there want to cut the sales tax, too, and with it the state’s meager spending on basic services. In January, after last year’s state tax cuts for the rich, a Kansas district court ruled that the state’s school spending was unconstitutionally low. (Rather than do the right thing, the state appealed the decision.) Last week, Kansas lawmakers cut the higher-education budget by nearly 5 percent, which University of Kansas officials said would be devastating.

Also last week, with money running short from a state government led by Republicans, the Philadelphia School District passed what the superintendent called a “catastrophic” budget that lays off 3,000 employees and eliminates athletics, art, music, librarians and counselors. In Indiana, Georgia, South Dakota, Pennsylvania and several other states, conservatives are blocking the adoption of national Common Core education standards. Many states are refusing to spend money on necessary road repairs. Missouri’s transportation budget is barely half of what it was a few years ago, but lawmakers have refused to raise taxes to pay for badly needed improvements.

The one virtue of a patchwork is that better examples are not far away. When residents begin to realize the grass is much greener on the other side of the state line, budget-slashing lawmakers will be under pressure to either change their ways or change jobs.