All too often national policies and practices lag behind states' pledges.
In fact, Illinois lags behind states that are petite by comparison, for example, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
The county lags behind state averages when it comes to vaccinations, including students entering school with up-to-date pertussis immunizations, according to the California Department of Public Health.
That should be a boon to civic engagement and voter turnout in Austin, which has lagged behind state and national averages.
As a whole, after years of poor performance and an exodus of middle-class families to the suburbs, Cincinnati has made some of the greatest gains in test scores in Ohio in recent years, even though it lags behind state averages.
President Obama asked Congress to consider increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, which experts said always lags behind state and local increases, and he proposed new rules in June to the Department of Labor to extend overtime pay to some 5 million American workers.
"If implemented, they will likely lead to structural changes in higher education that will leave Texas lagging behind other states and drive top students and faculty away.
I am running because our education system has been lagging behind other states.
But that can't explain why Maryland lags behind other states; every state operating its own marketplace faced the same issue.
But since then, the EU has frequently emphasised that the country is lagging behind other applicant states in reaching required EU standards, and that constitutional reforms should be accelerated.
Massachusetts is already lagging behind 10 other states that have taken a stand against these kinds of abusive and archaic systems of confinement.
