Headlines
Lifeguard’s ordeal is parable about outsourcing – column
Are Profit Seeking and Market Domination a Public Service?
UK: G4S’s Olympic struggles should derail the drive towards more privatisation
PA: Charter school founder gets 2-year term for fraud
AL: Judge in Alabama Halts Private Probation
NC: Pending toll road projects less a sure thing
IL: Midway Airport’s privatization prospects still unclear
NH: Surprising stand by Lamontagne
Lifeguard’s ordeal is parable about outsourcing – column
By now you’ve probably heard the story of the young Florida lifeguard, Tomas Lopez, who was fired earlier this month because he left his station unmanned to help with a rescue in an unguarded section of the beach, in violation of his company’s standard operating procedures….From another angle, this is also a parable about outsourcing and how it is reshaping large swaths of the economy….If you want discretion and judgment, if you want workers who really understand and relate to customers, if you want the flexibility necessary to respond to individual needs or unforeseen circumstances, then you can go back to paying twice as much to have your own, longtime employees doing the work. That’s the outsourcing trade-off. It may be a good trade-off — most of the time I suspect it is. But it is an unavoidable trade-off, no matter how good the contractors or their systems. Washington Post
Are Profit Seeking and Market Domination a Public Service?
The Gates Foundation favors a charitable model known as a public-private partnership, which appears at first to be an enlightened model for corporate engagement. For-profit ventures are “partnered” with the government for funding, to drive positive social change. The problem is that apparent charities are actually spending public funds, often without our knowledge or consent, and public private partnerships in education have shown themselves to be vulnerable to outright fraud as well as wasteful insider dealing. There’s no open or democratic mechanism to determine public benefit, or regulation to protect public education funding from financial pillage for services it doesn’t want or need. Some for-profit corporations directly set up their own non-profit intermediary to divert government funding. For example, the Pearson Education Foundation is a philanthropy which is under investigation for its work as an intermediary on behalf of its parent corporation, global giant Pearson Education, whose 2010 US sales totaled £2.6 billion (British pounds). Ed Week
UK: G4S’s Olympic struggles should derail the drive towards more privatisation
Private companies have one aim: profit maximisation. So expect cuts in staffing levels and everything done on the cheap. G4S was given a £284m contract to supply more than 10,000 security staff to work at the Olympic Games. The next time you meet one of those free-market ideologues who tells you private companies are always more efficient than the public sector, don’t bother to get involved in a lengthy argument. Instead just use the example of G4S. G4S, which describes itself as “the world’s leading security solutions group”, was given a lucrative £284m contract to supply more than 10,000 security staff to work at the Olympic Games. Now, two weeks before the opening ceremony, G4S tells us it needs additional help to meet its obligations. The testimony of those who tried to get a job suggests incompetence on an enormous scale….Meanwhile, a whistleblower who worked with G4S has claimed there is a “50%” chance of a bomb being carried into an Olympic venue when the Games begin because of insufficient training of staff. G4S, for its part, denied there was a problem and said that all staff would be prepared for the Games.The Guardian
PA: Charter school founder gets 2-year term for fraud
A former board president and founder of a Northwest Philadelphia charter school was sentenced in federal court today to 2 years in prison for stealing $522,000 in taxpayer money to prop up a restaurant, a health-food store, and a private school he controlled, and for other business and personal expenses. In April, shortly before he was scheduled to go to trial, Hugh C. Clark, pleaded guilty to all 28 criminal counts related to his role in a scheme to drain funds from the New Media Technology Charter School…The sentencing memorandum from the U.S. Attorney’s office described Clark as an Ivy League lawyer “who stole funds intended for the public school children of Philadelphia. No amount of money was too large or too small for defendant Clark to steal.” The thefts included bogus $25,000 “loan” checks made out to the private Lotus Academy, which Clark controlled; $500 per month to pay bills of his failed Internet company; and a $339,000 bank fraud connected with the Black Olive Restaurant in Mount Airy. The crimes took place over a four-year period from about May 2005 and June 2009. Philadelphia Inquirer
AL: Judge in Alabama Halts Private Probation
A county judge in Alabama has temporarily shut down a system in a town near Birmingham where people fined for speeding and unable to afford the ticket are handed over to a private probation company and sometimes sent to jail, where additional fees are imposed. Judge Hub Harrington of Shelby County issued the order this week, saying that he was “appalled” by what he characterized as a “debtors’ prison.” “From a fair reading of the defendants’ testimony, one might ascertain that a more apt description of the Harpersville Municipal Court practices is that of a judicially sanctioned extortion racket,” he added. “Most distressing is that these abuses have been perpetrated by what is supposed to be a court of law. Disgraceful.”…The New York Times reported on the lawsuit this month as part of an article about the aggressive use of fees and private companies by towns and court systems seeking income. Judge Harrington ordered a preliminary injunction against the town and company, calling their officials to a hearing on Aug. 20. He also barred any further detention in local jails of those placed on probation without his written permission. He ordered that anyone convicted in Harpersville Municipal Court be given 30 days to pay the fine without further fines or fees being imposed by the probation company. New York Times
NC: Pending toll road projects less a sure thing
An unusual probe by North Carolina Republican legislators into edited state Department of Transportation letters on funding for two divisive toll projects raised howls among Democrats who believed it was designed to embarrass Governor Bev Perdue…Republicans defended their investigation as neither about politics nor the merits of the Garden Parkway and Mid-Currituck Bridge projects — but rather ensuring that lawmakers get factual information from state officials.However, the investigation raised more questions about if or when shovels of dirt will be turned over for the bridge and parkway construction, which was mandated by the Legislature when it was in Democratic hands. A new crop of elected GOP lawmakers in the majority have questioned the efficacy of going through with the projects, giving hope to project opponents. Rocky Mountain Telegram
IL: Midway Airport’s privatization prospects still unclear
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration has awarded a new five-year, $53.6 million contract to the joint-venture hired in 2008 to manage Midway Airport, raising questions about the future of the Midway privatization deal that collapsed for lack of financing. Chicago Sun-Times
NH: Surprising stand by Lamontagne
Republican gubernatorial candidate Ovide Lamontagne is a fan of privatization – but not when it comes to New Hampshire’s prisons. After the Republican Executive Council voted last week to continue Democratic Gov. John Lynch’s push to explore prison privatization, Lamontagne spoke in opposition to the idea during a debate Thursday…”I think it’s important that we make sure that, as a state, we have the proper, humane treatment given to these incarcerated individuals, our prisoners,” Lamontagne said. “And unless you can show me a substantial savings, a maintenance of quality in a privately-run prison, I would not support privatization of prisons.” Concord Monitor