News
IN: Ind. school voucher ruling could influence others. The Indiana Supreme Court on Tuesday, March 26, 2013 upheld the law creating the nation’s broadest school voucher program, clearing the way for a possible expansion. In a 5-0 vote, the justices rejected claims that the law primarily benefited religious institutions that run private schools and accepted arguments that it gave families choice and allowed parents to determine where the money went. San Francisco Chronicle
IL: Chicago Parking Meters LLC, Parasitic “Business”. The company essentially paid the city a $1.1 billion bribe for a 75-year-long monopoly on a publicly-owned resource. The streets where Chicagoans park are maintained with public funds, and the company’s monopoly is enforced by the Chicago Police Department, which tickets delinquent drivers. Chicago Parking Meters is free to extract excessive tolls from the public because it has no competition — no one else can charge money for parking on Chicago streets. It’s a parasitic, not a productive, enterprise, because it stands to extract $11 billion in fees over the life of its lease — money that otherwise would have gone into the city’s treasury. Even more than that, Chicago Parking Meters is damaging businesses by charging more for parking than drivers would have to pay in the suburbs. NBC Chicago
IL: Editorial: Privatizing development agency a bad idea. Privatizing any state agency would put another barrier between taxpayers and an agency that is supposed to serve them. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where a private state economic development agency would benefit taxpayers. Illinois government needs more sunshine, not less. Bloomington Pantagraph
VA: Virginia Port Authority will not privatize most of its port operations. The Virginia Port Authority on Tuesday rejected two offers worth billions of dollars to privatize the operations of the state’s coastal terminals, choosing to keep and restructure the port’s current operator instead. Washington Post
LA: Inmate Suit Against Private Prison. A man on pre-trial detention at a LaSalle Management Prison in Claiborne Parish has been in solitary since June 6, 2012 and repeatedly Maced by guards, he claims in Federal Court. Courthouse News
IN: OPINION: Education reform industry targets Twin Cities. Murdoch is part of a growing list of corporate executives who see schools as profit centers. The education reform industry and their privatization efforts that have virtually destroyed the public education systems in Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans have been quietly, and not so quietly, targeting the Twin Cities. Twin Cities Daily Planet