Headlines
Private prisons lobby for harsher sentences
Broke cities sell naming rights
Ravitch: Will school choice kill public education?
NY: Companies shortchanged preschool special ed: Audit
CA: California fumbling commitment to higher education – editorial
PA: Liquor privatization goes back on the shelf
WA: Wash. faces new lawsuit on liquor privatization

Private prisons lobby for harsher sentences
If you’re looking for one of the reasons why the United States imprisons more people — by miles — than any other nation, you can look to the development of private prisons as a means of making some people rich. Those people spend millions of dollars to lobby elected officials to do two things: Convert government-run prisons to private prisons, and lock up more people for longer periods of time. Because that makes them even richer. A new study by the Justice Policy Institute reaches exactly that conclusion and documents it thoroughly. Trial by Fire

Broke cities sell naming rights
Many governmental entities across the nation are looking at new money-raising strategies to keep from cutting services….Such marketing schemes have long been used by sports teams and some arts organizations. But now, straphangers in Philadelphia buy fare cards blazoned with ads for McDonald’s and ride the Broad Street Line to AT&T Station (formerly Pattison Station), where the turnstiles bear the company’s familiar blue and white globe.  New York Times

Ravitch: Will school choice kill public education?
A reader posted a comment that I think is profound. The more that people begin to see education as a consumer choice, the more they will be unwilling to pay for other people’s children. And if they have no children in school, then they have no reason to underwrite other people’s private choices. The basic compact that public education creates is this: The public is responsible for the education of the children of the state, the district, the community. We all benefit when other people’s children are educated. It is our responsibility as citizens to support a high-quality public education, even if we don’t have children in the public schools. But once the concept of private choice becomes dominant, then the sense of communal responsibility is dissolved. Each of us is then given permission to think of what is best for me, not what is best for we. Washington Post

NY: Companies shortchanged preschool special ed: Audit
A New York State audit of private contractors who provide one-on-one instruction, speech or physical therapy showed some misused thousands of dollars in government funds….This money was intended to give our most vulnerable children the services they needed,” Mr. DiNapoli said. “Instead, the money was used for contractors to landscape their second homes or for no-show jobs. Special-needs kids were shortchanged by contractors that had figured out how to game the system.” More than 60,000 toddlers with physical, learning, developmental and other disabilities are served by the pre-K special education program across the state each year. Private contractors provide classes in special schools, one-on-one instruction in homes or neighborhood nursery schools, and a variety of treatments like speech, physical or occupational therapy.  New York Times

CA: California fumbling commitment to higher education – editorial
It’s deeply disheartening, but not surprising, to hear that some of the University of California’s graduate schools in business and management are awaiting approval to transform themselves into privately financed institutions. As the state of California continues to defund its once-proud public university system, it makes sense for UC to look elsewhere for support. It’s also part of a national trend, as dramatic budget cuts have left prestigious universities like the University of Virginia (around 6 percent state funding) and the University of Michigan (around 7 percent) public in name only. The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association reports that 2011 state and local support per public university student was at the lowest level in the 25 years that they’ve been keeping data. But none of this makes the news any better for the future of California’s public education system…Unfortunately, privatizing more and more university operations doesn’t guarantee lower tuition, either. In addition to being in direct opposition to the mission of public universities – which are, after all, meant to be “public” – privatization increases the likelihood that a public university will charge students close to what they would pay at a private one. That’s no way to build a well-educated workforce for the future. San Francisco Chronicle

PA: Liquor privatization goes back on the shelf
Union opposition, new language to deal with beer and local enforcement procedures and its last-minute debut contributed to the failure of a bill to privatize state liquor stores. Gov. Tom Corbett and House Majority Leader Mike Turzai plan to try again in the fall, though political analysts say that, realistically, legislators will be loath to vote on a controversial bill before the November election and might push it to next year.  Tribune-Review

WA: Wash. faces new lawsuit on liquor privatization
Supporters of an initiative that privatized liquor sales in Washington state have filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s rules for implementing it, claiming that liquor regulators circumvented the measure by arbitrarily restricting wholesale distribution and pricing of wine and spirits. The case marks the latest in a series of lawsuits over how Washington regulates spirits: The state had tightly controlled the distribution and sale of liquor since the end of Prohibition in the 1930s, until voters approved an initiative last fall kicking it out of the business. Seattle Times