News
The loss of the public good – Robert B. Reich. “Privatize” means “Pay for it yourself.” The practical consequence of this in an economy whose wealth and income are now more concentrated than at any time in the past 90 years is to make high-quality public goods available to fewer and fewer. In fact, much of what’s called “public” is increasingly a private good paid for by users — ever-higher tolls on public highways and public bridges, higher tuitions at so-called public universities, higher admission fees at public parks and public museums. Baltimore Sun
PA: Federal laws may bar bid by PA charter schools to get extra $150 million from public schools. Federal laws and regulations could save Pennsylvania school districts from having to turn over as much as $150 million that charter schools say they are owed. Charter schools have filed 231 requests to Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration, seeking to change the charter school funding formula to give them a share of the federal money school districts receive. Allentown Morning Call
PA: Are Philly Public Schools Destined For Failure? Philadelphia is borrowing $50 million to open schools this fall, a temporary fix for an increasingly worrisome funding problem. Meanwhile, GOP Gov. Tom Corbett is intent on destroying the teachers’ union. Has the district begun a death march? Huffington Post
KS: Administration defends child support privatization….The email Hensley received was from a DCF employee who said the child support division was doomed by understaffing and unnecessary bureaucratic changes. Freed said the division has “hired relatively few staff over the last nine months, knowing that privatization would be happening and wanting to reduce the layoffs,” but added that the division “has historically been overstaffed and inefficient.” “CSS was not set up to fail,” Freed said. “It was already failing, and we are trying to fix it.” Topeka Capital Journal
FL: Districts pushing back against state effort to privatize virtual school. The Palm Beach County School Board plans today to urge state lawmakers to repeal a new funding approach that slashed dollars for the state-run Florida Virtual School, spawning wholesale teacher layoffs from the program just as a new school year begins. The demand from county officials is part of rising push-back across the state over what critics say is the latest bid to further privatize public education by Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-led Legislature. Palm Beach Post