If you were...

...a member of a local school board, what would you target as a cut from the school budget?

Assume that you are a member of a local school board facing a multi-million dollar shortfall in your budget. Your local governing body has provided all the funding it can. You are faced with the unenviable task of having to prioritize the items in your budget that must be cut. What would be the three or so items that you would eliminate from the school budget?

Keep in mind that personnel costs constitute the largest single expenditure in any school budget.

Lifetime Tenure for Federal Judges?

Article III of the U.S. Constitution states that judges should serve their offices during good behavior. In essence, federal judges serve their appointments to the bench for life. Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 78 makes the case that the judiciary is the weakest of the three branches because it has neither control of the purse (legislature) nor energy (executive). Thus, to maintain its independence and allow it to be a co-equal branch of government, judges must be granted lifetime tenure. Operating without fear of retribution, judges, Hamilton argues, can render objective decisions that serve the interest of the law.

An opposing view was exhibited by Brutus in Anti-Federalist 78-79:

"There is no power above them, to control any of their decisions. There is no authority that can remove them, and they cannot be controlled by the laws of the legislature. In short, they are independent of the people, of the legislature, and of every power under heaven. Men placed in this situation will generally soon feel themselves independent of heaven itself."

The question then is, should judges serve for life? Is it important for judges to be above the political wrangling that takes place in the other branches of government? Or should they be held accountable on a periodic basis? Should there be a certain term of office for judges? Or would this subject the judiciary to too much political pressure?