School Finance Farce (Part One)
Amid all the controversy surrounding the recent SCOTUS decisions, it is easy to forget that federal courts do not have a monopoly on judicial activism. State courts—and in particular state supreme courts—can and do make bad decisions, often cleverly insulating themselves from further appellate review by resting their decisions on “independent state grounds.”
What’s the Matter with Kansas?
A Kansas court has just ruled that it would be unconstitutional under that state’s founding document to spend $548 million on police, infrastructure, health care or welfare. The court’s ruling does not explicitly disclose this, of course, nor will the judges on the panel admit it. But this is what happens when judges, who reside in a magical, apolitical world shorn of scarcity and therefore tradeoffs, mandate hundreds of millions of dollars in new education spending: The money comes from someplace else.
Smart Swap
Riving a Reagan era proposal, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) has proposed a grand swap: give all of Medicaid (including full funding responsibilities) to the feds; in exchange, wipe out all federal education funding. As described in The Upside-Down Constitution, a very similar swap proposal foundered in the Reagan era on the resolute opposition of the states and intergovernmental lobbies. Here’s to hoping that Senator Alexander’s proposal will receive a more favorable and constructive reaction this time around.
