Education has long been seen as a principal source of economic mobility. But for years now public education, and especially public higher education, has been under attack. American states now spend one-fifth less per public college student on average than they did a decade ago.  In California, which once boasted a public higher education system that was the envy of the entire world, state funding per-student has been cut in half.  As a result, despite the fact that fees for tuition, Continue Reading...

Unions have been under attack for some time, and public sector unions especially so.  And if not for the sudden death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, unions' ability to finance their activities would have been limited even further, for Scalia's death produced an equally divided Court in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. But a similar case is likely to come before the Court again, and while the issue in Friedrichs was Continue Reading...