News

Fake Political Outrage Is the Real VA Scandal. . . The extreme rightists who control the House of Representatives don’t want to privatize the VA to help veterans – if the Republican majority truly cared about veterans, they wouldn’t have repeatedly voted against bills providing jobs, homes, and health care to veterans and their families. The budget deal that Ryan and Senator Patty Murray approved last year cut veterans’ pensions by $6 billion. The GOP actually wants to see the VA fail to score more political points. By continuously cutting VA services, the far-right wants to reinforce their anti-government narrative by cementing the idea into people’s heads that government is bloated and inefficient, and that private companies unaccountable to voters should seize control of public assets. Huffington Post

The Privatization of Special Education. . . Of course, this move is nothing new in the world of special education.  In Illinois, there are a multitude of private operators (both non-profit and for-profit, though the tax status is mostly irrelevant in practice.)  Some of these schools are beautiful places.  Some have lovely sounding websites, covering up truly horrible, poorly-run warehouses for students with special needs.  But they are almost all very very expensive. In fact, as these schools expand in number, investors understand there is a huge profit margin to be had on the backs of these vulnerable students.   Districts, by federal law, must pay for these placements if it is determined to be the best environment for the student. But in order to ensure growth in this hot growing sector, special education services in public facilities must fail.  And failing they are in many places.  IDEA has never, in its history been fully-funded, but schools get punished for non-compliance all the same.  And as school budgets continue to shrink, special education services, very pricey services indeed, are often the first to go.  University of Colorado Boulder

MI: Detroit emergency manager reviewing final bids to privatize water and sewerage department. Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr’s office is studying several bids to privatize the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and could have a selection process completed within two weeks, a spokesman said Monday. But Orr spokesman Bill Nowling would not release any information about which companies submitted bids by Sunday’s deadline to operate and manage the system relied on by millions of people in southeast Michigan. Nowling said the bids are considered confidential under a federal mediation order.  Detroit Free Press

IL: Chicago Politician/Landlord Aims to Privatize Eviction. . . House Bill 5395 would privatize the eviction business by allowing any off-duty law enforcement officer hired by a landlord or private company to carry out an eviction. The bill has been described as “eviction at gunpoint” and “eviction by rent-a-cop.” ourstreets.net

IL: Clout-Heavy Charter School Group Charged With Defrauding. United Neighborhood Organization, the charter school group with connections to nearly every major politician and power broker in Illinois, was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday with defrauding investors on a $37.5 million bond offering for construction work by failing to disclose conflicts of interest. Oops. The conflict of interest centers on companies owned by brothers of UNO’s former senior vice president of operations Miguel D’Escoto. The companies received $8.5 million in business from $98 million in state grant money. Furthermore, the SEC alleges UNO failed to inform investors about the financial impact the contracts with the companies would have on its ability to repay the bonds.  InvestorsChicagoist

WA: Has liquor privatization in Washington brought negative consequences? There are four times as many stores selling spirits today than before privatization. Sales increased statewide by about 3 percent during the first 18-months. . . . Julia Dilley, with the Washington State Department of Health, has been researching the impacts of privatization. She said the increased prices and sales were expected, but there have been some unexpected consequences, too. “It was associated with an increase in some negative consequences, including emergency department visits for alcohol-related conditions, and multiple reports of alcohol theft,” Dilley said. Studying King County, which had the best data to track, Dilley said the historical data showed that there should have been about 10,000 emergency room visits for alcohol-related issues between June of 2012 and September of 2013. “We saw an excess about 5,500 additional emergency department visits for alcohol-related conditions in the 16 months after the change in law. That was about half again as much as what we expected.”  MyNorthwest.com

PA: Court Upholds Right of City To Dump Camera Contractor. With municipalities around the country deciding to drop red light camera programs at a record rate, the photo enforcement industry has turned to suing their own municipal clients to prevent a loss of business. This conduct will not be allowed in Philadelphia, a three-judge panel of the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled on Friday. The Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) signs the contract with the company that owns and operates the cameras, issues the tickets and collects the fine revenue. After a decade with American Traffic Solutions (ATS, previously operating as Mulvihill Intelligent Control Systems), city officials decided it was time for a change. A few months before the contract’s February 2014 expiration date, the city put the program out to bid and settled on Xerox, which offered the same suite of services for a lower price, to become the city’s next vendor.  TheNewspaper.com

ID: Idaho’s Federal Lands Panel Hires Private Attorney. The Legislature’s Federal Lands Interim Committee has hired outside legal counsel even though the state attorney general’s office has questioned the legality of Idaho being able to take control of public lands away from the government. The committee is relying on the Legislature’s Legal Defense Fund to cover the private attorney’s costs. So far, Idaho has paid the attorney nearly $26,000.  Boise State Public Radio

TX: After 10 years, I’ve dropped my support of the Trinity Tollway – opinion. Ten years ago, I was an outspoken and dedicated proponent of the Balanced Vision Plan, including the Trinity Parkway. . . . I have changed my mind and now confess publicly my opposition to building this highway. . . . The public projects that have been completed (or are nearing completion) in the Trinity River Corridor are already changing the use and investment patterns along the river. The talented Dallas real estate development community is serving customers who want to live, work and play nearby. If we begin construction of the tollway, we risk killing the goose that is laying this golden egg. We would be wiser — and richer — to continue investing in the smaller projects that improve the quality of life there.  Dallas Morning News

News

VA: Higher tolls pushing many off the Dulles Toll Road. When the Dulles Toll Road was built in 1984, it was meant to provide quick local access to the interchanges between the Capital Beltway and Dulles International Airport. An average of 327,296 vehicles traverse the roadway daily. But after five straight years of toll increases, many drivers have decided that the convenience, such that it is, is no longer worth the cost. “You talk to people and they go, ‘Oh, hell, no — I don’t use the toll road,’ ” said Tammi Petrine, a longtime Reston resident who used to use it but now avoids it whenever possible. . . . Not surprisingly, statistics show that as tolls increase, the number of annual toll road transactions decreases. Between 2010 and 2013, the number of transactions on the toll road declined by more than 5 million. But residents and elected officials worry the vehicles bailing on the toll road are clogging local surface roads.  Washington Post

NY: Mr. Schumer Backs a Bad Old Idea – editorial. Senator Charles Schumer of New York wants to outsource the collection of unpaid back taxes to private debt collectors, who would take a cut of the proceeds. The plan is basically a budget gimmick aimed at creating jobs at a handful of collection agencies, two in upstate New York. The last time the government tried to privatize collections, from 2006 to 2009, a handful of firms pocketed $16.5 million. But there was no increase in federal revenue — in fact, after accounting for administrative costs at the Internal Revenue Service, there was a net loss for the government of $4.5 million. A pilot privatization program in 1996-97 also lost money.  New York Times

WI: Wisconsin ranks high in number of charter schools, study says. Nearly 11% of public schools in Wisconsin are charter schools, the fourth-highest rate in the nation and double the national average, according to a recently released report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. . . . . Most charter schools in Wisconsin are run by districts, many with district staff, which means they have more restrictions – or more accountability, depending on your perspective – than charter schools that operate independent of school districts. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

News

The political fight over VA privatization. The notion that privatizing veterans’ care is the ideal solution is quickly rising on the list of Republican talking points. It started with Fox News and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a longtime proponent of the change, but the push has generated broader GOP support in recent days, including an endorsement of sorts from House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). . . .  As German Lopez explained, veterans’ advocates, who have long opposed privatization, haven’t changed their minds – they see this was an approach that would “undercut a system that specializes in veterans’ needs.”. . . A typical VA patient “might have a spinal cord injury, plus an orthopedic issue, plus a mental health issue. They’re a multifaceted patient,” Carl Blake of Paralyzed Veterans of America explains. “The VA is a system constructed to provide holistic care for the life of that patient. The private system is not constructed with those ideas in mind.” If the VA system offered substandard care, this would be a very different kind of conversation, but it doesn’t.  MSNBC

MN: Minnesota governor signs bill making private companies’ government contracts public. Gov. Mark Dayton has signed a bill making private companies’ contracts on government projects public under Minnesota’s open records law. . .The bill passed both the House and Senate unanimously. . . . The bill excludes health plan companies, managed care organizations and county-based purchasing plans until June 30, 2015. Dayton vetoed part of the bill that would fund a legislative auditor’s study on how secure state systems are at securing and transmitting data, including citizens’ personal information.  Greenfield Daily Reporter

NY: NYC outsourcing of chronic dialysis services from public hospitals to a for-profit chain scrapped. Dr. Ram Raju, President and CEO of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), testified at the New York City Council Executive Budget hearing today. . .  HHC also announced today that the plan for a dialysis services joint venture would be postponed indefinitely. ” NYCGov

WA: Early data show increase in alcohol emergencies since privatization. Shoppers are buying a bit more hard liquor now that they can find it at four times as many stores and during twice as many hours as it was available before voters privatized liquor sales in 2011. So how is Washington handling its extra liquor? Partly — according to researchers who are trying to answer that question — by making more trips to the emergency room. Those researchers gave a preliminary report Wednesday to the state Liquor Control Board on the effects of Initiative 1183.  The Olympian

NY: Port Authority plans public-private ‘hybrid’ to fund 3 WTC. The Port Authority on Wednesday all but abandoned an arrangement to double the public subsidy for Larry Silverstein’s long-stalled 3 World Trade Center project, choosing instead to pursue negotiations with private-sector financing groups that would likely demand an ownership stake in the tower. Officials said the outside interest had only materialized in recent months and would now be the focus of the bistate agency’s staff. The decision by the Port’s commissioners, announced prior to a meeting in which the $1.2 billion financing package was to be voted on, appeared to rile Silverstein, who said he was taken aback by it. He said he had agreed to everything the bistate agency had asked for in the month since the board delayed voting on the deal.  Capital New York           

LA: In New Orleans, major school district closes traditional public schools for good. With the start of the next school year, the Recovery School District will be the first in the country made up completely of public charter schools, a milestone for New Orleans and a grand experiment in urban education for the nation. . . . But in New Orleans, under the Recovery School District, the Louisiana state agency that seized control of almost all public schools after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city in 2005, the traditional system has been swept away. . . . Critics of the all-charter New Orleans model say it is undemocratic, because leaders of charter schools are not accountable to voters. They also say the system is challenging for parents, who have to figure out logistics that were not an issue when their children walked to neighborhood schools. “They don’t answer to anyone,” said Sean Johnson, the dean of students at Banneker, whose father attended the school while growing up in the Black Pearl neighborhood. “The charters have money and want to make more money. They have their own boards, make their own rules, accept who they want and put out who they want to put out.” Washington Post

FL: FDOT discusses First Coast Expressway toll road. The Florida Department of Transportation held an open house Wednesday to answer questions about the new First Coast Expressway already under construction. The expressway will be the first toll road since Duval County voters abolished tolls in 1989.  WJXT Jacksonville

TX: From roads to rail: TxDOT head opens door to raiding road funds for rail. In what appears to be a contradiction with Texas House Speaker Joe Straus’ announcement that his next budget will end all un-constitutional gas tax diversions to ensure taxes collected for roads indeed go to roads, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Executive Director Joe Weber recently signaled the need to depart from highway-only funding to use road taxes for rail. Weber told the Dallas Morning News that “it’s going to take more than new roads to keep Texans traveling smoothly if population growth estimates prove true.” He also said TxDOT needs to increase funding for rail projects despite an environment where road dollars are already scarce. With the Department’s shift to tolling, some of this money it plans to divert to rail will include toll revenues. Texans won’t take kindly to paying tolls to fund rail that they can’t or won’t use.  mySanAntonio.com (blog)

 

News

6 things that should never be privatized. From prisons to fire departments, these essentials must be protected from corporate greed. The idea behind operating gas, water or electric services as public utilities is that those things are important to people’s health and survival and therefore, must be protected from corporate greed. Some things belong in the private sector, others don’t. Here are six things in the United States that should remain in the public sector. Salon

IN: Corporate takeover of Indiana public education illustrated by new documentary. The 2011 school reform movement supported by Republican lawmakers and then Gov. Mitch Daniels was no more than sham to let corporate interests dismantle traditional public educations, according to a group of experts. . . . Education professionals spent two years developing the film that shows the decline in money and support for public education in favor of charter schools, choice and vouchers for education provided by faith and other private interests. And author Doug Martin, a college professor, offered his expose called Hoosier School Heist that documents money from big corporations like Walmart and Amway along with education foundations representing Bill Gates and Milton Friedman promoting lawmakers and laws that fostered charter schools and public money to fund them.  Muncie Free Press

CO: Colorado lawmakers approve new rules for public-private partnerships. A bill on the Colorado governor’s desk would place new rules on public-private partnership deals for highway projects. . . .The effort follows a deal early this year between the Colorado Department of Transportation and an Australian-based company, Plenary Group, for a portion of U.S. 36. The 50-year, $425 million deal calls for widening the highway between Boulder and Denver and adding a toll lane in each direction. Critics of the deal said it was done secretly with little public input. To help guard against similar actions in the future, one provision in the bill would require public and legislative “check-ins,” including town hall meetings.  Land Line Magazine

IL: West Side charter renewal halted until operators agree to rating system. The Chicago Board of Education tabled a vote Wednesday on whether to renew an agreement with the operators of a West Side charter school and indicated no action will be taken until the private group signs on to a new citywide accountability system.  Chicago Tribune

 

 

News

Group: $12.3B water bill ‘opens door for privatization’. A group that advocates for increased spending on public water infrastructure projects said Tuesday that a $12.3 billion port and waterways funding bill that is expected to be signed soon by President Obama will “open the door to water privatization.” . . . The Boston, Mass.-based Corporate Accountability International’s Public Water Works! campaign said Tuesday that the bill was less promising than it appears because it includes a provision that is designed to boost public-private partnerships called the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, however. “We are alarmed by the implications of this bill, which would open the doors to an increase in water public-private partnerships in the U.S. and effectively subsidize water privatization,” CAI Public Water Works Campaign Director Erin Diaz said in a statement. The Hill (blog)

Detainees Are Slave Labor in Private Prisons. Last year, at least 60,000 immigrants worked in the federal government’s nationwide patchwork of detention centers — more than worked for any other single employer in the country, according to data from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE. The cheap labor, 13 cents an hour, saves the government and the private companies $40 million or more a year by allowing them to avoid paying outside contractors the $7.25 federal minimum wage. Some immigrants held at county jails work for free, or are paid with sodas or candy bars, while also providing services like meal preparation for other government institutions.  Blue in the Bluegrass

PA: Group Says 1000+ Signed Petition Against Privatization of Philly Gas Works. About a dozen local activists delivered petitions today to members of City Council, urging the lawmakers to oppose Mayor Nutter’s plan to sell the Philadelphia Gas Works. “It will bring nothing but hardship and misfortune to the people of Philadelphia,” said Madeline Schikomba of South Philadelphia, one of eleven community activists distributing reams of petitions signed by what she said were residents who fear the fallout of a PGW sale. CBS Local

LA: Contract review bill killed. For the second year in a row, the Louisiana Senate Finance Committee killed legislation that would require review and oversight of contracts that would privatize services provided by state government. “It’s hard for us, as representatives, to go back home and tell our constituents that we didn’t review the contract and we’re 100 percent sure that it’s going to be saving us money,” said state Rep. Kenny Havard, R-Jackson, moments after the Senate Finance Committee voted 7-3 Tuesday to reject House Bill 128. The panel deferred a similar bill by Havard last year on a vote of 8-2. HB128 focused on the large contracts of more than $5 million that would, for example, replace the state workers running a prison or hospital with managers from a private company, Havard said. Havard said he wasn’t surprised because Gov. Bobby Jindal’s staff had lobbied against the legislation.  The Advocate

KS: Privatization initiative offers window on Kansas government. Soon after Gov. Sam Brownback’s inauguration, his then-chief of staff David Kensinger sat down for a private meeting with his recent lobbying firm partner, Matt Hickam; a Cabinet secretary, Rob Siedlecki; and a Brownback campaign contributor seeking to expand his company’s business in Kansas.. . . But at least one person in the meeting recalled feeling uncomfortable about it all.  “It appeared to be a meeting for the contractor to sell himself to the governor’s staff. No other contractor was sitting at the table. Was that the point? It was uncomfortable in that one contractor had the ear of the governor’s top staff, made the sales pitch, and no other contractors were invited or in attendance,” said the person, who requested to be unnamed, citing fear of possible retribution for speaking about it. KHI.org

TX: Power shift in Texas election to benefit anti-toll cause. It was another great night for the anti-toll cause in Texas. Today was the Republican primary run-off election and voters toppled the incumbent David Dewhurst, replacing him with tea party favorite State Senator Dan Patrick for the powerful Lt. Governor seat. . . . Under Dewhurst’s leadership, Texans experienced a massive shift away from an affordable gas tax funded freeway system to a reliance on tolling (just about everything that moves). The Perry-Dewhurst regime brought us the Trans Texas Corridor, quick take eminent domain, tolling existing freeways, handing our public roads to private toll corporations who charge Texans 95 cents a mile to drive, and using gas taxes and a host of public money to subsidize and guarantee the loans on toll roads. mySanAntonio.com (blog)

 

 

 

 

 

News

Right-Wing Media Ignore Facts In Push For VA Privatization. Conservative media are exploiting alleged problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to argue for the privatization of the VA’s health care system — a solution opposed by experts and veterans organizations as unnecessary and ineffective.  Media Matters for America (blog)

“Boehner Suggests Privatizing The VA: ‘I Still Like The Idea, And Especially Now'” House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is floating the idea of privatizing the Department of Veterans Affairs following multiple reports of abuses and delays of care at the agency. . . . Privatizing or partially privatizing veterans health care was most recently considered during the 2012 presidential election by Mitt Romney, who proposed giving service members government vouchers to “choose whether they want to go in the government system or in a private system with the money that follows them.” Veterans groups quickly rejected the idea, arguing that access to VA-sponsored care through private providers would undermine the existing system that is exclusively suited to meet veterans health needs and treat war injuries and could lead veterans to “lose the many safeguards built into the VA system.” Following the backlash, Romney abandoned the proposal. ThinkProgress

IN: Hoosier privatizing no longer windfall. . . Instead, investors in state projects are more likely to demand guaranteed fixed annual payments before providing money for the projects, The Times in Munster reported. The shift reflects investors’ desire to insulate themselves from the risk that revenue from the projects won’t meet expectations, said Robert Poole, director of transportation policy at the Reason Foundation. Poole said many public-private partnership projects “have gotten into trouble because projections were a little too rosy.” The new approach to privatization has forced officials in Indiana and Illinois to rethink their funding plans for the 47-mile Illiana Expressway. In early 2013, the states had hoped that investors might pay the entire cost of the toll road in exchange for keeping the toll proceeds. But that idea was dropped, and the states are now offering private investment teams competing for the project annual payments throughout the 35-year lease. If toll collections fall short of those fixed payments, the states will have to make up the difference.Indiana and Illinois also estimate they may have to pay a combined $270 million in cash to investors in the form of milestone payments in 2018 and 2019 once the road is built.  The Herald Bulletin

MA: State considers a private route toward pricey public road projects. . . Now, a commission created by Gov. Deval Patrick in 2009 is studying public-private partnerships, which could be used to eliminate Route 3’s Hingham bottleneck, build a second Sagamore Bridge and create revenue-producing opportunities at some of the 133 state-owned rest areas, weigh stations and park-and-ride lots. . . . Route 3 could see the first high-occupanecy toll lane in the state. The lane would stretch 9 miles, from the Braintree Split to Exit 14 in Rockland, where the road drops from three lanes to two. It would be built by a private developer, who would use open-road tolling to recoup the construction costs and generate a profit. Enterprise News

VA: State roads board wants greater transparency in public-private projects. The Commonwealth Transportation Board wants greater transparency – and possibly a greater role — in the public private transportation project process. The 17-member body on May 14 passed a resolution asking the director of the Office of Transportation Public Private Partnerships to undertake “an extensive and exhaustive review of the processes, policies, manual, and guidelines” used in soliciting, developing, negotiating and implementing the public-private projects. The review is aimed at increasing transparency, the competitive process and public involvement, as well as more direct involvement by the CTB in the development, negotiation and implementation of such transportation projects.  Richmond Times Dispatch

MO: Gov. Nixon will veto school transfer bill. Gov. Jay Nixon will use his veto pen on a bill allowing students to transfer to private, nonreligious schools because he says it doesn’t address problems in the current school transfer law. “Every child in Missouri deserves a quality public education, and that is why I am vetoing (the bill),” Nixon said Friday. “(The bill) fails to address the challenges resulting from the existing school transfer law and instead, would create even more problems by allowing public funds to be used for private schools and pulling the rug out from under students who have transferred.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch

MS: State hospital cancels private contract. Five months after the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield privatized its Community Services Division, the contract with Key Behavioral Essentials has been terminated. “The Department of Mental Health has terminated the certification of the provider that was to assume responsibility for providing services to some of the individuals who had been receiving services through the hospital’s Community Services Division,” Mississippi State Hospital spokesman Adam Moore said last week. “Based on that decertification, Mississippi State Hospital canceled the agreement with the provider.” The Clarion-Ledger wasn’t able to get a response Friday from the Department of Mental Health on the reason for the termination. Key Behavioral Essentials also couldn’t be reached for comment. Jackson Clarion Ledger

NC: Tensions rise over NC charter school rejections. A state screening board’s recent decision to reject most charter school applications has sparked tension over the role private management companies should play in public education. The N.C. Charter School Advisory Board approved only 11 of the 71 applications filed to open schools in 2015. That’s fewer than half the number approved for 2014, with a similar number of applications.  Charlotte Observer

OH: Ohio’s charter school dropouts soar, push state in opposite direction of US.  Dropout rates nationally are on the decline, but Ohio’s rate is on the rise. Granted, some dropout charter schools graduate nearly half of their students on time, a notable feat considering students enter these programs at least a year behind their peers in traditional high schools. But that’s not the norm. Many dropout charter schools, including White Hat’s chain of Life Skills centers, consistently report single-digit graduation rates. Over the course of last school year, more students dropped out of Life Skills than attended on the average day. Together, they are dragging down the state’s overall rate. Akron Beacon Journal

FL: Public-Private Partnerships (P3) Legislation a Hot Topic at the Florida Logistics & Trade Conference. Public-private partnerships (P3s) received significant attention at the 2014 Florida Logistics and Trade Conference.  The overall consensus of the conference’s P3 Panel, which was moderated by Albert Dotson, is that the state of Florida has cultivated a positive climate for P3s to thrive. Florida is prime for new infrastructure development and has established itself as a place where deals actually get made.  The National Law Review

CA: Public comment: The Silent Infiltration of Privatization. . . The private sector has been slowly and subtly implementing changes in Berkeley to marginalize people’s rights. For instance, in late 2011, residents in Berkeley were introduced to Measure S, an act that would ban sitting and lying down on sidewalks from 7:00am to 10:00pm near business districts. Business owners favor this measure because it would potentially promote a cleaner and friendlier environment that would attract more clientele. According to the measure, people who periodically violate the rules “within 30 days of a warning, would receive a $75 fine or community service.” Berkeley Daily Planet

 

News

 Bill would privatize IRS debt collection. The Internal Revenue Service would be required to turn over millions of unpaid tax bills to private debt collectors under a measure before the Senate, reviving a program that has previously led to complaints of harassment and has not saved taxpayers money. The provision was tucked into a larger bill, aimed at renewing an array of expired tax breaks, at the request of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.); New York is home to two of the four private collection agencies that stand to benefit from the proposal. Newsday

Don’t Turn Over IRS Debt Collections To Private Contractors – Opinion.  . . For many taxpayers, these private debt collectors would become the public face of the IRS. And I’m not sure they are quite the people who should be playing that role. The agency already must deal with incendiary congressional rhetoric about jack-booted thugs. Imagine the possibilities when the service has only limited ability to oversee private tax collectors who are working in its name—and on commission. . . . Privatization has been an on-gain off-again fad in Congress and the White House for years. And outcomes have sometimes been less than optimal. . . . I’m not suggesting government contractors are always incompetent or unreliable. Indeed, they have become an integral part of government and are far more effective at doing some tasks than federal or state employees. But based on past experience, it’s pretty clear that collecting taxes is not one of them. Forbes

Video: McCain Continues His Push To Privatize The VA. Senator John McCain interviewed on FoxNews about privatizing the Veterans Administration. Crooks and Liars

Postal union targets Staples over mail services program. The announcement last year drew little notice: The long-troubled United States Postal Service was teaming up with equally distressed retailer Staples Inc. to offer mail services in 82 of its office supply stores. Initially pitched as a modest public-private partnership, the deal has blown up into a major confrontation between the Postal Service and its main union. The postal workers contend the Staples deal amounts to privatization of a basic government function, and they have run protests outside the company’s stores. “We have no problem with Staples staying in the office supply business,” said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union. “We have a big problem with Staples trying to become the postal service for the people of this country.” Boston Globe

How Teachers Are Fighting to Change One of the Most Segregated School Districts in the Country. . . . The ideological backbone of the high-stakes testing frenzy is a neoliberal school reform agenda backed by Silicon Valley philanthropists and the educational product industry. This marketized educational model that promises to close achievement gaps by managing schools like tech startups, measuring intellect with data and firing teachers deemed underperforming. Yet for all the hype around “innovation” and “standards,” schools remain plagued by racial and economic inequality that speak to the unfulfilled promise of Brown v. Board, sixty years on. . . Many progressive educators are wary of the boosterism surrounding charter schools, especially because many are geared toward “underperforming” poor Black and Latino communities. These are the schools that tend to be targeted for shutdowns because they are labeled “failing.” They’re also the schools that are being squeezed by the expansion of charters, which are known for hogging scarce facilities and resources in impoverished neighborhoods. Brian Jones, a former teacher and now an activist and Green Party candidate, warned, “Our schools are more segregated than most in the nation, and it’s the charter schools and the privatization… that are causing that.” The Nation

NE: Child welfare money Nebraska owes reduced to $15M. State officials have reduced the amount that Nebraska owes the federal government for child welfare services that weren’t properly documented, but could still end up paying $15 million. . .  Federal officials called for reimbursement in January after noting that Nebraska failed to properly track payments made as part of its troubled effort to privatize child welfare services. Nebraska didn’t require its child-welfare contractors to give a breakdown of how much money was going to foster parents versus other services for neglected and abused children, federal officials said in a January letter to Nebraska DHHS officials. A review of 40 foster-care payments in fiscal years 2011 and 2012 found that the state didn’t comply with federal rules in at least half of the cases, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  99WRAL.com

State officials have reduced the amount that Nebraska owes the federal government for child welfare services that weren’t properly documented, but could still end up paying $15 million. . .  Federal officials called for reimbursement in January after noting that Nebraska failed to properly track payments made as part of its troubled effort to privatize child welfare services. Nebraska didn’t require its child-welfare contractors to give a breakdown of how much money was going to foster parents versus other services for neglected and abused children, federal officials said in a January letter to Nebraska DHHS officials. A review of 40 foster-care payments in fiscal years 2011 and 2012 found that the state didn’t comply with federal rules in at least half of the cases, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  99WRAL.com

TX: Toll roads: a tax on roads you’ve already paid for – Opinion. . . It’s a metaphor for how our state government is charging Texans twice for fixing the awful highway system in North Bexar County and beyond. Throw in federal tax subsidies to fix our state’s misuse of taxes dedicated to Texas transportation infrastructure needs, and it’s a trifecta of state financial and political malfeasance. mySanAntonio.com

News

Company Bidding on D.C. Metro Expansion Hires Ray LaHood. On Wednesday morning, private equity fund Meridiam Infrastructure announced a new hire: Ray LaHood. The former U.S. secretary of transportation, who stepped down in July of last year, is joining the firm, with the title of senior adviser to Meridiam North America. . . . Thierry Déau, Meridiam’s founder, told me that LaHood will help the firm identify future markets for infrastructure investments, which the firm funds through public-private partnerships (PPPs). . . . As for projects in the American market that Meridiam is bidding on, Déau listed a few — a major new terminal at LaGuardia Airport in Queens (where Meridiam is partnering with, among others, Skanska, Tishman Construction and Parsons Brinckerhoff on the construction side, and Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Wells Fargo for financing), the Purple Line light-rail project in D.C.‘s Maryland suburbs (where they’re joining forces with Fluor for construction and engineering and one of Star America’s funds on the money side), plus a judicial facility in Indiana and roads across the U.S., including in Nevada.  Next City

The Republican Party Has a VA Problem, Too: Privatization Isn’t Popular. . . . I recall Veterans’ Day in 2011, when Mitt Romney proposed something similar, though perhaps less expensive. “Sometimes you wonder if there would be some way to introduce some private-sector competition,” he said. “Somebody else that could come in and say, you know, that each soldier gets X thousand dollars attributed to them, and then they can choose whether they want to go in the government system or in a private system with the money that follows them.” Vets condemned him immediately and he quickly reverted to the more liberal view that if demand for VA medical care exceeds supply, we should spend the money required to increase supply. . . .For every possible reason, Democrats would rather the VA failure never have happened. But as Romney and our old friend Social Security can attest, dismantling public programs and turning them over to rich private-sector donors, many of whom have worse track records, will be poorly received. The New Republic

Don’t privatize the veterans hospitals – opinion. President Obama can do himself a big political favor this month by saying simply this: “I will not privatize the VA hospitals.” That’s the bottom line for the current right-wing crusade mixing patriotic posturing with loathing of government in general and Obama specifically. We speak of allegations that a Phoenix hospital (and perhaps others) run by the Department of Veterans Affairs hid deadly delays for treatment by using secret waiting lists. . . . “We’re against privatizing the VA system,” Joe Davis, national spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars, told me in no uncertain terms. “To privatize the VA puts us on a waiting list with everyone else out in the United States.” You see, getting medical care can be rougher outside government-run programs.  The Seattle Times

VA: McAuliffe announces public-private partnership reforms. Governor Terry McAuliffe (D-VA) says he thinks public-private partnerships for road construction in Virginia are a good idea, but they have to be win-win projects. In March, he stopped payments on the 55-mile Route 460 project from Suffolk to Prince William County. At that time, he said the state would demand transparency and competitiveness in all future public-private partnerships. On Thursday, McAuliffe said the Commonwealth Transportation Board passed a resolution to do just that and to better evaluate the public’s risk for projects delivered under the Public Private Transportation Act. Read the resolution. WVEC.com

 

 

News

A dozen problems with charter schools. School reformers keep talking about charter schools as if they were the answer to public education’s problems, when there is a great deal of evidence that shows big problems with the charter sector. For example, a report on Pennsylvania’s charter schools recently released by a state legislator found that only one in six of the state’s charter schools is”high-performing” and it notes that none of the online charters is “high-performing.” Washington Post (blog)           

VT: Vt. Transportation Agency to study road tolls. Vermont’s deputy secretary of transportation has asked her staff to re-evaluate whether the state could impose interstate tolls. WCAX

LA: Bobby Jindal administration will send revised hospital privatization plan to federal officials. Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration announced Thursday night that it intends to send the federal government a revised financing plan for the privatization of six state-run hospitals by the end of the week. Louisiana will have to adjust the fiscal arrangement that governs some of its medical facilities for the poor and uninsured or face potential turmoil in its operating budget in 2015. The state would have to pay back at least $200 million to the federal government if an agreement over how to structure the hospitals’ privatizations can’t be reached. The Times-Picayune

DC: DC approves three new charter schools. The D.C. Public Charter School Board has approved three new charter schools: a residential school meant for children in foster care, a K-8 school targeted at students with special needs, and a middle school that emphasizes international education. Washington Post

VA: Redflex Caught Using Violation Calculator. Yellow lightRedflex Traffic Systems uses a special spreadsheet to calculate precisely how much profit a city can expect from red light cameras on an intersection-by-intersection basis. WTKR-TV reported about the “violation calculator” that Redflex used to provide the city of Chesapeake, Virginia with the dollar figure it could expect after signing a contract with the Australian firm. The violation calculator is a more refined version of the criteria red light camera companies have always used. In 2001, a team of attorneys in San Diego, California used a court subpoena to obtain a copy of the confidential site evaluation performed by vendor Lockheed Martin (which now operates as Xerox). The decisions on where cameras were installed were based on finding high volume, downhill approaches where the yellow time was less than 4 seconds. TheNewspaper.com

TX: Do not believe the Trinity toll road is dead. I do not believe it. These are dangerous conclusions for those of us who think the road through the levees is a bad idea. The road has a very serious funding gap, north of a billion dollars. That puts it in a very precarious position. But it remains the top priority of transportation planners in the region. It’s possible that the NTTA will get more bonding capacity in coming years and find a partner to go in on the deal. It might not be likely, but to say it is impossible concerns me. The toll road (please don’t call it a parkway) has been the vision for Dallas leaders for so long that it will be hard to shake them from their place. Dallas Morning News (blog)

 

News

5 ways privatization is fleecing American taxpayers. For decades we’ve been subjected to constant propaganda that government is inefficient, bureaucratic and expensive. We’re told that the answer is to “privatize,” or “outsource” government functions to private businesses and they will do things more efficiently and everyone comes out ahead. As a result we have experienced decades of privatization of government functions. So how has this wave of privatization worked out? Has privatization saved taxpayers money and improved services to citizens? Simple answer: of course not. If a company can make a profit doing something the government had been doing, it means that we’re losing out one way or another. It’s simple math. And the result of falling for the privatization scam is that taxpayers have been fleeced, services to citizens have been cut way back and communities have been made poorer. But the companies that convinced governments to hand over public functions have gotten rich off of the deal. How is this a surprise?  Salon

How You’ll Get Screwed If Conservatives Kill the U.S. Postal Service. If USPS in its current form ceases to exist, the results will be harsh. . . . But if USPS in its current form ceases to exist, the results will be harsh, not only in terms of the job losses and loss of tax revenue (unionized postal workers pay a lot of federal and state taxes), but because of the hardships both businesses and consumers would suffer. The end of the U.S. Postal Service could mean more business for its two main privately owned competitors, Federal Express and the United Parcel Service (UPS). But to think either would offer a better deal to consumers is pure fantasy. AlterNet

The Right Way and the Wrong Way to Privatize Science. This isn’t America’s first time seeing an infusion of personal wealth getting poured into research, but the last time around, it was done more democratically. The Atlantic

National study of charter schools finds massive fraud, mismanagement, abuse. . . The end goal of the report, say its authors, is to warn the public about the increasing risk that communities and taxpayers face by having an inadequately regulated charter industry. ‘Despite rapid growth in the charter school industry, no agency, federal or state, has been given the resources to properly oversee [charter schools]. Given this inadequate oversight,we worry that the fraud and mismanagement that has been uncovered thus far might be just the tip of the iceberg.’ The Progressive Pulse           

IA: Tensions grow over public-private economic development groups. The North Iowa Corridor Economic Development Corp. reported in 2013 that it had delivered $65 million in new capital investment and created more than 200 new jobs in Clear Lake, Mason City and Cerro Gordo County.But officials failed to report the names of all of the companies, what incentives they received or what role the nonprofit played in securing that development. The nonprofit also last year hired Iowa State University head football coach Paul Rhoads, who commands fees in excess of $20,000, to speak at its annual dinner but refused to say how much he was paid. Experts say the public-private nature of some local and regional economic development groups raises questions about what information is considered public and what records can be kept under wraps. Similar concerns have been raised in the past with other public-private organizations like the Iowa Association of School Boards. Des Moines Register

IN: Worry Surrounds Privatization Of Public Pension System. Legislation passed this year required the Indiana Public Retirement System Board to delay privatizing a part of the public pension system. But some lawmakers are concerned the delay isn’t long enough. Indiana Public Media

OR: Liquor privatization initiative moves forward; opponents release negative poll data. Supporters of an initiative to allow liquor sales in big Oregon grocery chains have gotten the official nod to begin gathering signatures, and they plan to start as early as next week. Opponents of the change, meanwhile, released results of a statewide poll showing strong voter sentiment against changing the current state-run system of selling booze. The Oregonian

NJ: Ras Baraka Wins In Newark. Education Privatization Loses. On Tuesday I wrote that the mayoral election in Newark, New Jersey, was a referendum on “education reform,” aka education privatization. The election results that night had “reform” candidate Shavar Jeffries losing to Ras Baraka, a Newark high school principal who wants to improve the very damaged Newark school system, not dismantle and replace it. Tucson Weekly

MA: Charter school expansion bill expected to advance. Just more than a handful of mostly urban school districts would be impacted by a proposal to gradually expand charter school enrollment in Massachusetts in what the lead sponsor of the legislation described as a “very modest” increase. MassLive.com

LA: State Rep: Privatization crisis will hurt poor, uninsured. On May 5, the Center for Medicaid Services unequivocally rejected the Jindal administration’s hastily crafted financing plan for the privatization of numerous Louisiana hospitals. As a result, and as confirmed directly by me in a phone call with CMS, Louisiana’s citizens will lose up to $500 million in federal health care funding. Further, due to the Jindal administration’s irresponsible insistence on including nonexistent revenue to balance its budgets, the state is faced with budget deficits in upcoming years exceeding $2 billion. Most importantly, the poorest and most vulnerable of Louisiana’s citizens remain without meaningful access to health care. Opelousas Daily World