AZ News & Blogs 6/9/2010

• U.S. Supreme Court Blocks Release of Campaign Matching Funds 
• In a major victory for free speech, the U.S. Supreme Court this morning blocked the use of taxpayer money as campaign "matching funds." The Court will decide whether to review a ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Cato Institute Reactions 
• When taxpayers underwrite the campaign expenses of candidates for public office, serious questions arise: Not least, why should taxpayers subsidize candidates or ideas they oppose? But when taxpayers subsidize only one side in a campaign, there should be outrage. Perhaps there was at the Supreme Court this morning, when the Court blocked an appalling opinion out of, not surprisingly, the oft-overturned Ninth Circuit.
• Coyote Blog Reactions 
• I find many of the uses politicians make of the money they take from me to be irritating.  But perhaps the worst of them all is to use my money to fund their own election campaigns when they can’t get enough people to voluntarily contribute.  Which is why I am happy to see the Supreme Court put a injunction on Arizona’s politicians take tax money to re-elect themselves law.
• Why We Need Fewer Public School Jobs, Not More 
• The first [of two charts] shows that employment has grown 10 times faster than enrollment over the past 40 years.  The second chart shows how the total cost of sending a single child through the public school system has changed over the years, along with trends in student achievement.