Are America's Public Universities in Danger of Being Privatized?

[Donnachaidh]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/bill-berkowitz/34064/are-americas-public-universities-in-danger-of-being-privatized

In a 1997 post-welfare reform speech, Lawrence W. Reed, president of the conservative Midland, Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy, touted privatization as the wave of the future: " superiority ... is now approaching the status of undisputed, conventional wisdom: the private sector exacts a toll from the inefficient for their poor performance, compels the service provider or asset owner to concern himself with the wishes of customers, and spurs a dynamic, never-ending pursuit of excellence - all without any of the political baggage that haunts the public sector as elements of its very nature."

Reed discussed two basic shibboleths of privatization: private corporations have a critical role in bridging the gap between government capacity and needed services during times of government expansion (the Progressive Era of the late 19th Century, the New Deal and the Great Society); and privatization "reduce costs and increase efficiency during periods of reduced government funding," (the Reagan Era, Welfare Reform), as Kristi D. Laguzza-Boosman pointed out in her 2008 paper titled "Does Privatization at the Federal Level Serve the Public Good?"

Laguzza-Boosman also noted that the Bush administration "greatly accelerated the privatization efforts of previous administrations."

These days, in state after state, as Daniel Denvir recently pointed out in "Is American Higher Ed Screwed? Conservatives Try to Privatize College As Tuition Soars," the financial crisis has forced public university systems to re-think how they function: "As in most corners of American life, crisis is the new normal in academia. Investment returns to university endowments have plummeted, state aid is being cut, and critical federal stimulus dollars are running out. Tuition is up, enrollment is being capped, positions are being eliminated, and universities are increasingly relying on part-time adjunct faculty that shuttle from campus to campus in an effort to cobble together a paycheck."

More at the link --

[TBF]

1. With Mr. Obama as president everything is in danger of being privatized. nt