Headlines
Mass privatization put former communist countries on road to bankruptcy, corruption
Gambling on national security
OH: Privatizing government assets a growing trend
SC: SC House approves private school choice bill
FL: Trump hotel poaching public beach, says neighbors

Mass privatization put former communist countries on road to bankruptcy, corruption
…Authored by sociologists at the University of Cambridge and Harvard University, the study, which appears in the April issue of the American Sociological Review, is the first to trace a direct link between the mass privatization programs adopted by several former Soviet states, and the economic failure and corruption that followed…The more faithfully countries adopted the policy, the more they endured economic crime, corruption, and economic failure. This happened, the study argues, because the policy itself undermined the state’s functioning and exposed swathes of the economy to corruption. The report also carries a warning for the modern age: “Rapid and extensive privatization is being promoted by some economists to resolve the current debt crises in the West and to help achieve reform in Middle Eastern and North African economies,” said King. “This paper shows that the most radical privatization program in history failed the countries it was meant to help. The lessons of unintended consequences in Russia suggest we should proceed with great caution when implementing untested economic reforms.”…The researchers argue that mass privatization failed for two main reasons. First, it undermined the state by removing its revenue base—the profits from state-owned enterprises that had existed under Soviet rule—and its ability to regulate the emerging market economy. Second, mass privatization created enterprises devoid of strategic ownership and guidance by opening them up to corrupt owners who stripped assets and failed to develop their firms. “The result was a vicious cycle of a failing state and economy,” King said. Science Codex

Gambling on national security
In confronting any other national security threat, the U.S. wouldn’t trust unreliable and unproven solutions. We would go with what works. Why, then, do some in the education sector insist we gamble on the privatization of our public schools?..Stanford University professor Linda Darling-Hammond notes that “the nation’s largest multistate study on charter schools found that charters have been, overall, more likely to underperform than to outperform district-run public schools serving similar students.” Voucher programs perform even worse in empirical studies. More importantly, charters and vouches siphon badly needed resources away from our public schools and thereby undermine the institution at the heart of our nation’s democracy. By neglecting to mention the negative consequences of school privatization, the report is pushing an agenda that encourages us to forsake our public responsibility to education and to deny public schools the resources they need to educate all of our children. Huffington Post

OH: Privatizing government assets a growing trend
Whether it’s Hamilton County selling Drake Hospital property, the city of Cincinnati trying to unload Music Hall or the state of Ohio talking about selling prisons, the turnpike and the lottery, government increasingly appears to be, in real estate jargon, a very motivated seller….For governments struggling to make ends meet, the financial lure of such deals is powerful – even if, as skeptics argue, they frequently offer only a short-term solution. “That big pot of money is very attractive,” said Richard Little, a senior fellow at the Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California. “The problem is, sometimes it’s like going to the pawn shop. You get what you can, not necessarily what it’s worth.” That is the fault that Hartmann and Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes find with the controversial Drake deal, under which UC Health paid the county $15 million for the Hartwell rehabilitation hospital’s buildings and land. Rhodes argues that the county sold “a valuable asset at a bargain basement price,” and Hartmann agrees the deal – which will help pay for the Bengals’ and Reds’ stadiums and restore a property tax credit for homeowners – was not a good one for taxpayers. “Even putting price aside, selling a valuable asset for what amounts to a one-year fix of the (stadiums’ funding) problem is poor policy,” Hartmann said. “It’s shortsighted.”  The Cincinnati Enquirer

SC: SC House approves private school choice bill
After eight years of fighting, proponents of helping parents send their children to private schools won approval Wednesday in the South Carolina House. Spartanburg Herald-Journal

FL: Trump hotel poaching public beach, says neighbors
In typical South Florida fashion, there’s a tug-of-war underway over sun and sand. This latest seaside skirmish has neighbors living in the shadow of Trump Hollywood incensed, arguing that the luxury condo treats the public beach like a private one…Since January, the Trump Hollywood employees have been setting up a corral of chairs and chaise lounges on the public beach, defining a seemingly exclusive space for their high-end residents. A team of four resisters from The Wave next door has staged daily late-afternoon sit-ins in the sunny corral when their beach sits in the shadow of the Trump.
“What they’re doing with those chairs, it’s just to keep the common folk out and I d In typical South Florida fashion, there’s a tug-of-war underway over sun and sand. This latest seaside skirmish has neighbors living in the shadow of Trump Hollywood incensed, arguing that the luxury condo treats the public beach like a private one. Palm Beach Post