Headlines
States reject offer to buy prisons
Lawmakers pick fight with Feds over public lands
Higher education under attack
Public schools sell empty classroom seats abroad
FL: Parent trigger bill ends in defeat
LA: Jindal’s plans for Central La. prisons under fire
IL: Protesters take to streets over mental health clinic closures

States reject offer to buy prisons
…Despite a need for cash, several states immediately slammed the door on the offer, a sign that privatizing prisons might not be as popular as it once was. Corrections Corporation of America sent letters to the prison leaders in January, saying it had a pot of $250 million to buy facilities as part of an investment. The company is trying to capitalize on the landmark deal it made with Ohio in the fall by purchasing a facility, the first state prison in the nation to be sold to a private firm. Prison departments in California, Texas and Georgia all dismissed the idea. Florida’s prison system said it doesn’t have the authority to make that kind of decision and officials in CCA’s home state of Tennessee said they aren’t reviewing the proposal. The states refused to say exactly why they were rejecting the offer. “Knowing the state government, it has to have something to do with the potential political backlash,” said Jeanne Stinchcomb, a criminal justice professor at Florida Atlantic University who has written two books on the corrections industry. “Privatization has reaped some negative publicity, so I can only assume that despite the possible benefits, there would be a price to pay for supporting it.” Bruce Bayley, associate professor of criminal justice at Weber State University, said he hoped something other than politics drove the states’ decisions. “It’s always hard for politicians to turn down the money,” said Bayley. “On the flipside, though, it speaks well to the professionalism of corrections departments of these states who don’t want to sell out to companies just to add some money to their bank accounts.” The Associated Press

Lawmakers pick fight with Feds over public lands
..Republican legislators in Utah and Arizona are leading a charge to try to force the federal government to hand over control of public territory that makes up much of the West, insisting local leaders could manage it better. “We’re putting them on notice for them to cede it to us. And if they don’t, we’ll start taxing it,” said Arizona state Sen. Al Melvin, who sponsored the legislation in that state. Skeptics say state officials are likely to do more harm than good, especially to the environment, and stand to ruin what makes the region unique. “How in the world do they think they could manage these federal public lands?” asked Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter. Legal experts say the challenges are unconstitutional. But the fight is worth it for many who see the potential for millions of dollars in revenue from taxes, development rights or even the sale of lands. Governing

Higher education under attack
…Most universities before 1945, and even before 1970, were state institutions. The one significant exception was the United States, which had a large number of non-state institutions, most of which had evolved from religiously-based institutions. But even in these U.S. private institutions, the universities were run as non-profit structures. What privatization began to mean throughout the world was several things: One, there began to be institutions of higher education that were established as businesses for profit. Two, public institutions began to seek and obtain money from corporate donors, which began to intrude in the internal governance of the universities. And three, universities began to seek patents for work that researchers at the university had discovered or invented, and thereupon entered as operators in the economy, that is, as businesses. In a situation in which money was scarce, or at least seemed scarce, universities began to transform themselves into more business-like institutions. This could be seen in two major ways. The top administrative positions of universities and their faculties, which had traditionally been occupied by academics, now began to be occupied by persons whose background was in business and not university life. They raised the money, but they also began to set the criteria of allocation of the money. Binghampton University

Public schools sell empty classroom seats abroad
…In Sharpsville, Pennsylvania, and Lake Placid, New York, in Lavaca, Arkansas, and Millinocket, Maine, administrators are aggressively recruiting international students. They’re wooing well-off families in China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Russia and dozens of other countries, seeking teenagers who speak decent English, have a sense of adventure – and are willing to pay as much as $30,000 for a year in an American public school. The end goal for foreign students: Admission to a U.S. college. In an age of tenuous public funding, school districts “can’t expect to sit back and survive, because the money is not going to be there. The taxpayers are not going to provide it,” said Kenneth Smith, the superintendent in Millinocket, a remote town of 5,000 in central Maine. Reuters

FL: Parent trigger bill ends in defeat
A coalition of Democrats and Republicans late Friday afternoon mustered the 20 votes needed to defeat the bill, which would have enabled parents to demand sweeping changes at low-performing schools. Among the options: having the school converted to an independently run charter school. “This bill would have dismantled and defunded our public education system,” said Senate Minority Leader Nan Rich, D-Weston, who fought against the proposal. “It would have allowed private, for-profit [charter school] management companies to take advantage of our public assets.”..From the start of the 60-day session, the parent trigger was among the most hotly debated bills. Its earliest opponents: a coalition of parent groups that included the Florida Parent Teacher Association. Almost immediately after the bill was filed, the coalition distributed a stinging press release, claiming the proposal really sought to line the pockets of for-profit school management companies, which would have access to new contracts. Miami Herald

LA: Jindal’s plans for Central La. prisons under fire
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s plans to close a state prison in Pineville and privatize another in Cottonport will have ramifications beyond the job losses, local officials say, and some question whether the governor has thoroughly thought things out. And the governor can expect a fight in the legislative session that starts Monday, they said. Jindal announced earlier this year that he planned to close J. Levy Dabadie Correctional Center in Pineville, lay off the more than 100 prison workers there and ship the inmates to Avoyelles Correctional Center in Cottonport. Jindal also plans to sell Avoyelles Correctional to the highest bidder and have the prison run by a private company. Alexandria Town Talk

IL: Protesters take to streets over mental health clinic closures
…Chicagoans across the city took to the streets to rally against the proposed closures of six of the city’s twelve mental health clinics over the next month and a half, as well as bids to privatize of all seven of our Neighborhood Health Centers. Services such as counseling, physical therapy, and psychiatric evaluation will no longer be provided from these clinics to 5,000 people who are in need.  Huffington Post