As universities and colleged continue to struggle with declining revenues, states are increasingly looking to performance-based funding in an effort to get more bang for their limited higher education dollars.

Corrections spending currently accounts for $53.3 billion in state budget expenditures nationwide, with the majority of funding going toward prisons. In 2011, corrections costs took up 7.5 percent of all state general fund expenditures.

Officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice responsible for the state's prisons are pushing back against a request to reduce their budget.

Prison privatization was sold in Arizona on grounds that it was a money saver. If it turns out that private prisons are costing taxpayers even more, the subject should be revisited in a public forum.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors released a report Thursday showing slow but positijve economic growth in metro areas around the country, warning that lack of investment in transportation infrastructure threatens the health of the economy.