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.

AZ News & Blogs 5/25/2010

• A Legal Analysis of the New Arizona Immigration Law 
• None of these provisions, on their face, appear to be unconstitutional, in the sense of Arizona intruding on federal authority over immigration policy...just because the law is constitutional doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good policy...the boycotts of Arizona adopted by city councils around the country...are likely themselves unconstitutional.
• In short, the Arizona immigration law presents a tremendously complex issue, as the Arizona Republic has recognized, that does not lend itself to easy calls or soundbites.  I myself am not certain how I would have voted if I didn’t have the third option (as Arizona doesn’t) of imminent federal reform — to the disconsolation of state legislators around the country who have asked me what they can do to placate a (legitimately) aggrieved public besides enactiong Arizona-style laws.
• My thoughts:  Nice and balanced.  It would be nice if I didn't get so emotional about all of this!
• Supreme Court Will Hear Appeal of School Choice Case 
• The SCOTUS Blog reports this morning that the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in the Arizona k-12 scholarship tax credit case.
• For further reading see:
• Cato’s Amicus Brief Helps School Choice Get to the Court; Congrats, IJ! 
• Thomas Will Defend AZ School Choice Issue Now Before U.S. Supreme Court Horne Opposed 
• High court to hear Arizona school case 
• Death-penalty cases put county public defender’s office $8M over budget 
• A Maricopa County agency that contracts with private attorneys to represent indigent criminal defendants is going to end the fiscal year over budget by more than $8 million, or about 63 percent. County managers attribute the overspending to a glut of death-penalty cases and the high cost of defending them. The Office of Public Defense Services has ...
• My thoughts:  Is it worth the money, or would it be worth just keeping them in prison without even worrying about the death penalty?  Not to mention the moral implications of all the innocents we've putting in jail (listen to The Perfect Evidence).
• I said in the past how it's not necessarily the people that are the problem but the institutions themselves.  Just like the schools. 

AZ News & Blogs 5/18/2010 (Sales Tax Vote is Today)

• If the government tells you to be afraid, then you know you need not be afraid 
• Rejection would trigger $862 million of contingency spending cuts beyond those already included in the budget due to the state’s loss of 30 percent of its revenue.
• Most of the contingency cuts were aimed at education. Those include $428.6 million for K-12 schools, $107.1 million for universities and $15.2 million for community colleges and $4.7 million for other programs.
• Budget and school officials said rejection of the tax increase would produce larger class sizes, reductions in specialized instruction and layoffs and furloughs for teachers and other school workers.
• Elsewhere in government, predicted cutbacks tied to rejection of Proposition 100 included layoffs of Highway Patrol officers, transfers of 3,000 to 5,000 prison inmates to county jails, new reductions of payments to hospitals and other health care providers, and reduced services for developmentally disabled adults and disabled children.
• Proposition 100 opponents argued that the state hadn’t cut spending deep enough and that passage of the measure would keep spending at levels that the state cannot afford. They also said a tax increase would throttle the state’s ailing economy by stifling retail trade.
• My Thoughts:  Notice how the government always uses fear tactics to get what they want?  That's the way it's always been, they use these tactics to take our freedom away and they will continue to use the tactics to take our freedoms away.  Note how they did this with the anti-illegal immigration law that recently passed, they slipped into the law the ability to send all our personal ID information to the federal government and to stop us and ask for papers with no true cause.  Lets stop the anti-freedom politicians and vote no on 100.
• Where's all the money going for schools for the recent rise in taxes? 
• Most schools received a 10% increase in Maintenance and Operating (M&O) funding from higher 2009 primary property taxes.
• In March special elections were held so schools could add an additional 15% override to their M&O funding.  Overrides are part of secondary property taxes and are calculated on Full Cash Value.
• We need to find out where all the money is going before we raise taxes, worsen the recession, and further depress much needed economic growth.
• My Thoughts:  There is no end to the money hungry politicians!
• Lessons From Venezuela’s 21st Century Socialism 
• The accomplishments of Venezuela’s “Socialism of the 21st Century” are looking very much like those of old-fashioned socialism with basic goods shortages, high inflation, negative growth, blackouts, water rationing, the persecution of Hugo Chávez’s critics, plus skyrocketing crime.
• My Thoughts:  Socialism just doesn't work...the public schooling system in the US is socialism and has proven not to work.  It only dumbs down the population and recreates an anti-freedom-loving people.
• Supreme Court Further Reduces Constitutional Limits on Federal Power 
• ”turned an instrumental power, dependent on Congress’s other powers, into an independent power.”
• the Court did further damage to principled constitutional interpretation in citing foreign law as support for its holding that life-without-parole (LWOP) sentences are unconstitutional as applied to juveniles committing non-homicide crimes.  
• My Thoughts:  The government can now hold you forever in prison without due process and after you've served your entire sentence.  Wait, the government could already do that.  Time to wake up I suppose.

AZ School Changes

• Arizona Legislature Adopts Sweeping Education Reforms
•  This session Arizona lawmakers enacted some of the most far-reaching K-12 education reforms in state history. The changes have received little attention from any Arizona media so far. But you can bet you'll hear much more as the state implements the new laws.
  
  Ten years ago Florida implemented a set of education reforms that transformed their schools from among the worst performers on national tests to among the best. Several of the bills that Governor Brewer has signed into law are modeled on Florida’s success.

• Further in the article a list is given with changes that have been implemented in this last legislative session. 
• My Thoughts: "Don't let a crisis go to waste."  Good words when it means less government, more accountability for government, and more freedom for the people.
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Schools Don't Need More Money

A while back ago Chino Valley attempted an override.  After doing some research I determined that they seemed to be getting plenty of money, considering they were getting $1,500 more per pupil then private schools according to one commenter and according to the research I did (it was $5,500 for high school and $4,000 for grade school) and the private school could pay for athletics and music on this budget.  Part of the reason public schools cost more is due to the bureaucracy and mandates by legislation.

Chino Valley school district averaged the following per pupil for the following years:
Year            Average Daily Attendance            Expenditures/Pupil/Year
2001           2415.7                                         $5,732
2002           2430.9                                         $5,828
2003           2504.7                                         ?
2004           2523.2                                         $6,186
2005           2599.4                                         $7,039
2006           ?                                                   ?
2007           ?                                                   ?
2008           2680.7                                         $7,189
2009           2705.6                                         $7,003
2010           ?                                                  ?

Imagine a teacher getting that money directly, we wouldn't have poor teachers anymore!  This is a good case for privatizing schools and getting bureaucracy out of schools.  We would then see some really good teachers make 7 figures and the bad ones finding new jobs!

See the following from "Seeing Red AZ" for more on AZ schools.  Also, see this article for a compelling case to just have privatized schools.  Also, see this commentary video from a successful entrepreneur on schooling and ADD.

Vote no on proposition  100 the 1% sales tax increase this May!