News
NH: New Hampshire drops bid to privatize state’s prisons. The state announced yesterday that it has dropped its bid to privatize the state’s prisons because none of the four companies that wanted the job showed they could meet court-ordered requirements for inmate care. The private prison companies also proposed wages and benefits that are half what security staff at the prisons earn now, according to two reports on the bids released yesterday by the state Department of Administrative Services and Department of Corrections. Concord Monitor
WI: Educator Who Challenged Scott Walker’s Vouchers Agenda Wins 61-39 in Wisconsin. When Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker announced that he would use his upcoming budget to expand private-school voucher programs, even some Republican legislators objected. But the loudest objection to Walker’s approach, and to the broader national push to shift taxpayer dollars away from public education and toward private experiments, came from Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers. “This has to stop,” he said. “The state cannot continue to play favorites. We can and must meet our constitutional obligation to invest in all of our kids.” Today’s election offered voters a crystal clear choice between two very different philosophies about education,” the superintendent declared on election night. OpedNews
VA: Pro ports privatization group accused of campaign finance violation. A group that produced robocalls promoting the now-sunk port privatization efforts was accused of campaign finance violations by a watchdog group in Washington for election-season TV ads in Ohio. CBEG put out two robocalls — one that slammed former Virginia International Terminals CEO and president Joe Dorto as overpaid, and one that characterized the privatization plan as an effort of Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell.. But a year earlier the group bought at least $896,000-worth of TV ads slamming President Barack Obama and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. Daily Press
PA: Corbett’s continued lottery privatization pursuit is robbing seniors, Democratic senator says. Sen. Mike Stack, D-Philadelphia, calls Gov. Tom Corbett’s lottery management privatization effort “the worst example of government waste.” Stack was reacting to a Pennlive report about the Corbett administration’s spending at least $2.85 million so far on consultants who have assisted it with exploring the idea of privatizing the management of the Pennsylvania Lottery. PennLive
NE: Board of Regents hires consulting firm to help with health center privatization. The University of Nebraska Board of Regents has hired Deloitte consulting to answer its questions about Chancellor Harvey Perlman’s proposed plan to privatize student health care at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Since Perlman presented his privatization plan to the community, health center employees have jumped ship, seeking employment at other areas around campus to maintain benefits or simply seeking work elsewhere. Roughly a dozen employees have left the health center, including a couple physicians, the lead pharmacist, marketing coordinator and insurance coordinator. Daily Nebraskan
Occupy the Department Of Education Returns to DC. Liberal education luminaries including Diane Ravitch, a former assistant education secretary, and Central Park East schools guru Deborah Meier, will be in Washington as part of a four-day “Occupy the Department of Education” event organized by United Optout, a group that came together last year in the flurry of other Occupy Wall Street events. They’ll be part of non-stop speechmaking from teachers, educators, students, and parents, decrying such things as high-stakes testing and the move towards privatizing public education. Mother Jones