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Postal workers resist privatization plans. . . As seen in the simultaneous demonstrations in 27 states last week, as well as the postal employees’ presence at International Workers’ Day rallies on Thursday, several decisions by Donahoe have only heightened fears among America’s postal workers. The most visible sign of union angst is the movement to thwart Donahoe’s aim of putting full-service USPS counters in 1,500 Staples stores, to be staffed with the office supply chain’s own, lower-paid employees. Yet that’s just the latest in a string of changes that seem geared toward outsourcing various postal jobs, which include efforts to consolidate processing plants and contract out the trucking of mail from plants to post offices.  Al Jazeera America

LA: Federal officials deny state’s public-private partnership with LSU hospitals. It is a decision that impacts the future of several hospitals in the metro area and a decision Gov. Bobby Jindal plans to fight. The federal government recently shot down Jindal’s plan to privatize six state-owned hospitals, including the LSU Interim Hospital and the new University Medical Center under construction now. . . .The reason? Any payments made to the state by a private company, in order to manage a state hospital, is considered a provider donation. If a private entity sends dollars to the state, it can not gain in any way from the dollars it would send to the state,” says Heitmeier. WWL

NY: Teachers picket in the North Country. Despite the rain, a group from New York State United Teachers, also known as NYSUT, gathered in Lake Placid.  They protested what they call efforts to privatize public education, expansion of standardized testing and the common core, and test-based teacher evaluations. Demonstrators are also calling for more teachers to be included in decision making for public education in New York. The group picketed outside a meeting organized by Education Reform Now. WPTZ

NJ: Privatization deals / Oversight needed – Editorial. Democratic leaders in the state Senate are pushing a bill that would increase oversight of deals privatizing government services. The bill will never become law – not as long as Chris Christie, or any other privatization-loving Republican, is governor. . . But all that aside, the measure (S770) is sound. Indeed, for the most part, it isn’t increasing oversight of privatization deals as much as it is establishing oversight for the first time. . . . But if privatization is such a good deal, there is no reason why proponents should not be willing to have these arrangements scrutinized, as the measure being pushed by Senate Democrats would do. Press of Atlantic City

MI: Michigan could soon see more toll roads. Michigan has three toll roads–all around major bridge crossings. But the National Motorists Association warns that could soon change. A bill in the Michigan legislature looks to increase road funding by $500 million, and would also give the legislature the authority to come up with new revenue streams.  This could give M-DOT and the Transportation Commission the ability to create a toll road. WWMT-TV

 

 

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Corporate Interests Calling the Shots at ALEC’s Kansas City Meeting. . . ALEC’s Education task force has several tuition tax credit new vouchers on the books, and at this week’s meeting, it will consider adding an expanded “Educational Choice Tax Credit Program Act” to the ALEC library. The bill would allow a 100% tax credit for the first five years of the program, which effectively means that both corporations and individuals can entirely reroute their tax dollars from public schools and services to private entities. The credit is then ratcheted down to 50% over the following five years. The bill specifies that even parents who are currently paying for private school tuition can receive funding through the program. These “neo-vouchers” have been spreading across the country more quickly than traditional vouchers. The tax credit model provides a way to funnel taxpayer dollars to private schools with even less public accountability than with regular vouchers, and to bypass state constitutional provisions that have stood in the way of some state’s traditional voucher programs. PR Watch

Teachers Are Protecting American Classrooms From Corporate Takeover. . . Across the country, teachers’ unions are fighting back against the work of people like Rhee by working to educate children holistically. This means taking into account all the factors that influence students’ chances for success: families, homes, communities — and often the effects of poverty. In Milwaukee, Peterson is working with his union to emphasize teacher professionalism and social justice in the community. In New York City, as part of a union-based program, 16 schools have reinvented themselves as hubs for community services. In St. Paul, Minn., teachers visit parents in their homes to build engagement with families. BillMoyers.com

MI: Private trash haulers to hit Detroit streets starting Monday. Detroit’s transition to privatized residential trash pickup with more frequent bulk pickup and a first-ever citywide recycling program will kick off Monday as a contractor takes over the service in a large swath of the city.  Detroit Free Press

MI: House bill sparks concerns about toll roads in Michigan. A spokesman for a highway user group accused lawmakers Thursday of trying to sneak toll roads into Michigan through a package of bipartisan bills intended to raise an extra $500 million a year to repair the state’s crumbling infrastructure. House Bill 4925, one of a package of bills now before the Legislature as part of the road funding plan announced in April by House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, has the primary purpose of allowing the Michigan Department of Transportation to enter into “public-private partnerships” on road projects. But it also provides for “the charging and collection of user fees.”  Detroit Free Press

NY: Next battle ground: Privatization of public schools. . . Through de Blasio’s fight with Moskowitz — a long-running feud that dates to their City Council days — the mayor has missed the opportunity to advance an important principle: Public school policy shouldn’t be driven by Moskowitz or the crowd that met at Cipriani. Public schools should be run by officials elected by the voters. The scores of revelers at Cipriani on Monday would rather redefine quality public education as a marvelous favor bestowed by the elite upon a very lucky few. This elite does not need to figure out how to educate the underperforming or ill-behaved kids who aren’t welcome in many charters. These hedge fund managers don’t have to worry that charters are worsening segregation patterns in the city’s schools. Members of the elite who run charters need not fret about the impact of charters on our public schools because they are not elected or paid by the public, and they don’t oversee anyone who is. That’s what privatization looks like. And that’s what the mayor needs to be talking about.  amNY

OR: Liquor privatization ballot should include ‘imposes wholesale tax,’ Oregon attorney general says. The battle over the wording of an initiative to turn Oregon liquor sales over to the private sector came closer to being settled Thursday when the state attorney general’s office said the ballot should include the phrase “imposes wholesale tax.” Opponents celebrated the new wording in hopes that voters may be turned off by the idea of a new tax. Supporters said they could live with it. They’re glad it doesn’t refer to a sales tax.  The Oregonian

Transcript for: An Aging Infrastructure And The Need For A New Era In Transportation Policy. Thanks for joining us. I’m Diane Rehm. Potholes, crumbling pavements and structurally deficient bridges — there’s lots of work to be done on the nation’s roadways. But unless Congress votes to supplement federal gas tax revenue, states and counties will likely be shelving an ever-growing list of projects on their must-do list. Joining me to talk about how we pay for our roads and bridges, Robert Puentes of The Brookings Institution, Chris Edwards of Cato, Fawn Johnson of the National Journal. And joining us at a studio at WGBH in Boston, Phineas Baxandall of US PIRG.  DianeRehmShow

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White House opens door to tolls on interstate highways, removing long-standing prohibition. With pressure mounting to avert a transportation funding crisis this summer, the Obama administration Tuesday opened the door for states to collect tolls on interstate highways to raise revenue for roadway repairs. The proposal, contained in a four-year, $302 billion White House transportation bill, would reverse a long-standing federal prohibition on most interstate tolling. Though some older segments of the network — notably the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes and Interstate 95 in Maryland and Interstate 495 in Virginia — are toll roads, most of the 46,876-mile system has been toll-free. Washington Post

The Privatization of the National Mall: America’s Front Yard for Sale. . . Cunningham claimed that the National Park Service, in undertaking a multimillion-dollar renovation plan, was striving for “a more sustainable and visitor-friendly urban park.” A review of National Park Service documents reveals a tangle of onerous restrictions that will have a chilling effect on who will be able to pursue hosting an event on the National Mall. The effort, imposes draconian rules and permit requirements that, if not overturned, will leave the National Mall little more than a virtually fenced off playground for those wealthy enough to sponsor events there. Under the latest requirements of the Park Service, intended to protect newly installed “high-tech turf,” most of the memorable events of recent history on the Mall would not be possible. Huffington Post

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The Koch Efforts To Privatize Schools Dealt a Blow By Record High School Graduation Rate. . . According to a new report, for the first time in American history the national high school graduation rate surpassed 80% in 2012 and is projected to reach 90% by 2020. For the record, it is statistically impossible for a 100% rate due to a wealth of factors far out of the control of schools, teachers, students, and even parents. Republicans, privatization advocates, religious extremists, ALEC, and anti-union fascists contend that America’s public schools are failures on the decline and regularly propose “school choice” legislation, voucher scams, unregulated and failing charter schools, and private religious are necessary to stop the nation’s education system from continuing its downhill trajectory. The news that universal, and free, public education is not failing, and in fact improving, is certain to ire conservatives who will likely portray the news as proof that giving for-profit substandard corporate and religious education crusaders taxpayer dollars will guarantee a 100% graduation rate. PoliticusUSA           

This land is our land – until it’s privatized. . . This particular campground host works for a Phoenix-based corporation called Recreation Resource Management. Though the company’s vehicles and uniforms resemble those of the federal agency, these employees are not the noble forest rangers of days gone by, nor do they own the land they manage. American taxpayers have provided the infrastructure, including the recently completed, six-year renovation at Rose Canyon. In exchange for running the site, the concessionaire collects the profits. But national forest concessionaires don’t honor federal agency passes or follow the same rules that govern the Forest Service when it comes to fees. I notice that the fee booth on Mount Lemmon is closed. That is because the law does not allow the Forest Service to charge visitors for simple access — for parking and walking through the national forest. But when RRM opens the campground at Rose Canyon, all visitors will have to pay $10 just to park and walk around the lake. In fact, even if you park along the highway, as I did, RRM will charge you for walking through “their” campground, built with your tax dollars. It seems shocking to say it, but this privatization of what were once public resources was recently upheld by the Washington, D.C., District Court, in a lawsuit in which I was one of six plaintiffs. We challenged the Coronado and four other national forests’ use of concessionaires to evade laws that restrict what fees the agency itself can charge. We lost.  High Country News

California House delegation urges Postal Service to nix Staples deal. A California House delegation led by Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) is calling on Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe to reject a recent pilot program with Staples to operate retail mail counters at 82 U.S. stores.  The pilot program, announced in November, allows for Staples employees to process basic mail services. Of the 82 pilot locations, 32 are in California. . . .Lowenthal echoed criticism by union officials and warned that the partnership “is a clear and unmistakable attempt at union-busting, as well as the privatization of critical public services,” he wrote in a letter to Donahoe.  Los Angeles Times

NJ: Turnpike plan to privatize NJ toll collectors panned by Assembly leader. A vote on a plan to privatize toll collector jobs on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway has been postponed until October. The chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee says the savings, averaging about $1.50 a year for frequent drivers, is not worth it to “discard” loyal employees. The Star-Ledger

IL: Ousted Red-Light Camera Vendor Rakes In Windfall In Chicago. Even as Redflex Traffic Systems’ scandal-plagued eleven-year tenure operating the nation’s largest red-light camera system was ending, it was a particularly lucrative year for the company. The last Redflex cameras (at the intersection of Grand, Kostner and North) were turned off in February, but in the year before that, the company raked in $24 million, city records show, making this the second most profitable year in the company’s Chicago history.  TheNewspaper.com

 

 

 

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For-Profit Colleges Spend Big On Lobbyists to Fight Obama Regulation. With the May 27 deadline approaching to submit comments to the U.S. Department of Education, big for-profit colleges are pulling out all the stops to gut the Obama Administration’s proposed “gainful employment” rule, which is aimed at curbing predatory career training programs.  Taking some of the $33 billion a year they’ve been getting from taxpayers, the industry is spending big on lobbyists, with a continued heavy emphasis on hiring former Members of Congress and ex-Capitol Hill staffers. Republic Report

NJ: Months after Christie veto, bill restricting privatization passes Senate committee again. A bill that would regulate New Jersey’s attempts to privatize government functions advanced out of a Senate committee Monday, less than a year after a similar version met Governor Christie’s veto pen. The legislation would forbid the state from outsourcing a government function to a private company — a practice often touted by Christie as an efficient way to save taxpayers money — if the cost savings would come from increasing fees, cutting services or reducing wages. NorthJersey.com

PA: So how many plans to privatize Pennsylvania liquor sales are out there? The Pennsylvania Senate is expected to take up liquor privatization this week. It remains to be seen if the plan that’s been circulated among Senate leadership is popular enough to overcome the deadlock that have stalled others. PennsNews

TX: Boom Time in Texas: Jobs, Traffic, Water Worries. . .Mr. Nichols, a former commissioner of the Texas Department of Transportation, says lawmakers have favored alternatives such as striking partnerships with private developers to build toll roads, which eases congestion in a way that is “off the books of books of the state.” Wall Street Journal

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A Walmart Fortune, Spreading Charter Schools. . . In effect, Walton has subsidized an entire charter school system in the nation’s capital, helping to fuel enrollment growth so that close to half of all public school students in the city now attend charters, which receive taxpayer dollars but are privately operated. Walton’s investments here are a microcosm of its spending across the country. New York Times

Introducing the New Federal Program That Will Further Privatize Public Housing. Olufemi Lewis was a child in Charlotte, NC, when HOPE VI came through town. HOPE VI was a federal initiative that issued grants to tear down physically distressed public housing. The buildings that were eventually rebuilt were in better shape, but most of their original residents were gone, including many of Lewis’ friends and relatives. Across the country, only 33 percent of the housing demolished with HOPE VI was replaced. . .  .HOPE VI started in 1993 because there wasn’t enough money to keep up public housing in the traditional way. There still isn’t. . . .The Rental Assistance Demonstration program, known as RAD, will restructure the way public housing is funded in an attempt to leverage private money to maintain it.  democraticunderground.com

US postal workers protest step toward ‘privatization’. Postal workers across the United States on Thursday protested a partnership between the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and office supply chain Staples – a program that would allow nonunion retail employees to help handle mail and packages at Staples stores. Al Jazeera America

CA: LA Metro adds monthly fee for toll road drivers. In a push to make toll lanes permanent fixtures on two of Los Angeles County’s most congested freeways, local transportation officials approved a $1 monthly fee Thursday that will apply to all drivers with electronic tolling accounts, even carpoolers and infrequent users. . . . several public speakers said they were concerned that a fee for every driver, including carpoolers using the toll lanes, would discourage people from signing up for accounts. During the months when Metro waived the account maintenance fees, sign-ups for the tolling devices increased, the agency has said. Metro owes the project’s contractor $3 a month in maintenance fees for every tolling device put into service. “There are people who just want to go to the airport once or twice a month,” Molina said. “But for every transponder out there, whether it’s used one time or 55 times, that cost is still $3.” That totals about $9.1 million a year in fees. Los Angeles Times

NY: New York City Agrees on Charter-School Pact With Success Academy. New York City officials said on Saturday that they agreed with Eva Moskowitz, head of education provider Success Academy, over new space for three charter schools that lost homes two months ago when Mayor Bill de Blasio revoked plans for them. . . .The charter network said the sites will serve about 500 elementary school children beginning in the fall, with most coming from low-income, minority families. Representatives for the city and the charters were negotiating details late into Friday night for the schools, part of a high-performing network run by Ms. Moskowitz, a former city councilwoman who has often sparred with the mayor. A representative for the charter network said it has dropped its legal challenge, and city officials said they were working on final lease details.  Wall Street Journal

MI: Detroit employees skip work ahead of privatization of garbage collection. The upcoming privatization of garbage collection in Detroit has some city employees skipping work, leaving trash pickup services behind schedule, officials said Saturday. The city’s Department of Public Works Director Ron Brundidge issued a statement saying trash collection is about two days behind schedule, in part because of extra bulk trash and yard waste that normally comes this time of year. There’s also been a slowdown due to some workers staying home, he said.  MLive.com

FL: Orlando toll-road scandal was predictable, preventable. On Thursday, Gov. Rick Scott saw his appointee to Orlando’s toll-road agency get indicted and booked at the jail.mIt was a pathetic scene — and yet another stain on this mess of an agency that sucks up commuters’ toll money and yet seems incapable of cleaning up its act.  Orlando Sentinel

ID: Guest Opinion: Idaho’s CCA prison debacle shows need for serious reform. When elected leaders hire a private corporation to manage an essential government function, they do not make government smaller. Privatizing a public service merely reduces control, oversight and accountability. Idaho’s contract with Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to manage the Idaho state prison is a glaring example of privatization gone badly wrong.  The Idaho Statesman

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Meet The Companies That Just Promised To Pull 60 Million Dollars From Private Prisons. Three investment groups announced this week that they will divest from the two major private prison corporations that constitute a massive share of America’s prison-industrial complex. . .The decision to divest comes on the heels of pressure from Color Of Change, a racial and economic justice advocacy group that ran a campaign asking a total 150 companies to stop investing in the private prison industry. “In accordance with the principles of the UN Global Compact, with respect to the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights, the pension fund has divested from the for-profit prison industry,” DSM President Hugh Welsh said in a Color of Change statement. “Investment in private prisons and support for the industry is financially unsound, and divestment was the right thing to do for our clients, shareholders, and the country as a whole. DSM is committed to good corporate citizenship and operating in a way that contributes to a better world.” ThinkProgress

Unions protest Postal Service deal with Staples. Postal workers demonstrated at Staples stores nationwide Thursday to protest a recent U.S. Postal Service deal that allows the office-supply chain to operate USPS retail counters at some of its locations as part of a pilot program. The financially struggling Postal Service said its agreement is part of a plan to increase convenience and boost business through new partnerships. The agency also has contracted with Amazon to provide package deliveries on Sundays for the online retailer.  Washington Post

Separate and unequal: The charter school pedestal the public can’t reach. . . . As the broader debate over charter schools whips across the country, the epicenter is in Harlem, home base for the Harlem Success Academies, the city’s most successful and well-funded charter school network. Despite their relative success in offering a quality education to a small number of students from some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, the network’s sharp elbows and aggressive expansion has created a toxic dynamic as traditional public schools languish. Critics say that charter schools—publicly funded but run by private organizations—are being used as a means to privatize public education at the expense of the vast majority of students. They say the charter movement is a Trojan-horse riding under the guise of school choice, used as an instrument to break teachers unions. Exacerbating matters in New York City is a complicated dance called co-location, in which traditional public schools and charters co-exist under a single roof. The policy has become a lightning rod issue that has vexed the young administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio.  MSNBC

WI: Legislators order audit of privatized medical ride program. . . . The groups urged the committee to request an audit that addressed more fundamental questions about privatization through a broker. Under the privatized program — which took effect with LogistiCare as the first broker in 2011 — a company contracted by the government dispatches rides to Medicaid-covered services for poor and elderly residents who have no other way to get to their appointments. The company is paid a fixed amount per eligible member, not for the number of rides provided. Rep. Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) said Thursday that when a company gets paid regardless of whether it provides services, it creates a “perverse incentive” to provide as few rides as possible as cheaply as possible because the company makes more money that way. Other critics said patients get worse or unreliable service, and established transportation companies lose business because they can’t or won’t compete with newcomers who underbid them. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

WI: Scathing Report Finds School Privatization Hurts Poor Kids. . . .Lafer’s report, “Do Poor Kids Deserve Lower-Quality Education Than Rich Kids? Evaluating School Privatization Proposals in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,” released today by the Economic Policy Institute, documents the effects of both for-profit and non-profit charter schools that are taking over struggling public schools in Milwaukee. “I hope people connect the dots,” Lafer said by phone from the Milwaukee airport. Lafer’s research, commissioned by the Economic Policy Institute to evaluate the school-privatization push in Milwaukee, is a sweeping indictment of the growing private charter school industry and other schemes backed by rightwing groups and big business that siphon public funds out of public schools and enrich corporate investors at the expense of quality education for poor children. Milwaukee is ground zero for school privatization, having pioneered the use of publicly funded private school vouchers in 1990.  . . . A popular chain of charter schools called Rocketship, which originated in California and has spread to Wisconsin, with the enthusiastic support of state legislators and the local chamber of commerce in Milwaukee, is “a low-budget operation that relies on young and inexperienced teachers rather than more veteran and expensive faculty, that reduces curriculum to a near-exclusive focus on reading and math, and that replaces teachers with online learning and digital applications for a significant portion of the day,” Lafer writes. In These Times

IL: Despite Community Pleas, Three Chicago Schools Slated for Privatization. The Chicago Board of Education’s vote on Wednesday to convert three public elementary schools into “turnaround schools” run by the non-profit Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL) was no surprise to most parents and teachers. The board has consistently voted to close schools or turn them over to private management—laying off most of the staff in the process—despite overwhelming opposition, anxiety and outrage expressed in heartfelt testimony by parents, teachers, students and elected officials at scores of public meetings.  In These Times

FL: Measure Would Set Long-Term Transportation Plans. Florida House members on Thursday unanimously passed a vision of the state’s transportation future that calls for more toll roads. It would encourage more ellphone towers on state property to raise money to build roads in these days of declining gas-tax revenue. It also would allow businesses to put up signs on state nature and recreational trails to help pay for their maintenance. . . . But that’s not all HB 7175 would do. It also dissolves the state’s rail commission created in 2009 and rendered moot by Gov. Scott’s refusal of billions in federal dollars that would have built a high-speed link between Tampa and Orlando. . . . The bill, which is sponsored by Rep. Tom Goodson, R-Titusville, puts a heavy emphasis on private money. It authorizes the DOT to help pay for future road projects by using money from leases with wireless companies that want towers near state roads. The bill allows ”commercial sponsorship displays” on state trails. The money raised from the agreements between the DOT and private businesses would pay for trail maintenance, something that gas taxes have helped finance. A similar trailside sign measure failed two years ago because of concerns that it would clutter the landscape. The Ledger

 

 

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Union chief cries foul on poultry inspection privatization. A plan to privatize poultry inspection would increase the chances of contaminated meat entering the food supply, according to the head of the American Federation of Government Employees. The plan would allow companies to privatize the inspection process and would speed up processing lines by 25 percent, while remaining Agriculture Department employees would be responsible for inspecting 175 birds a minute, according to union president J. David Cox in a blog post on the Huffington Post. “Let’s be clear: This is a filthy rule that will lead to filthy chicken on your dinner plate,” he wrote. Federal Times

New Net Neutrality Proposals Worry Campaigners. Federal Communications Commission (FCC ) chairman Tom Wheeler will today present his proposals for net neutrality – which reportedly include the provision that content firms should in some cases be allowed to pay for faster access to customers’ homes. . . . The proposals would be good news for large companies such as Netflix or Google – and for broadband providers, which would be able to raise extra revenues from prime customers. But start-ups could have great difficulty getting their services off the ground. This has been a concern for the Obama administration, which in February issued a statement warning that: “Absent net neutrality, the internet could turn into a high-priced private toll road that would be inaccessible to the next generation of visionaries.”  Forbes

VA: Va. toll road could cost $500m, not be built. Former Gov. Bob McDonnell’s aggressive push to build a toll road parallel to U.S. 460 from Suffolk to Petersburg may wind up costing taxpayers between $400 million to $500 million — with no road to show for it. . . .“Taxpayers have been shaken down on this thing,” said Del. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Prince William. The state and private bondholders have already spent about $282 million on the project, with no construction having yet started. . . . Gov. Terry McAuliffe stopped work on the project in March rather than continue to pay private contractor U.S. 460 Mobility Partners while the state considers alternate routes or improvements to the existing road that would have less of an impact on the area’s wetlands. U.S. 460 Mobility Partners is a joint venture between Ferrovial Agromán of Spain and American Infrastructure, whose corporate headquarters is in Pennsylvania. The project was initially intended to be a public-private partnership with substantial private investment with corresponding assumption of risk, Layne said. When the state sought offers in 2006, private companies said the road would need a large public subsidy. An independent review board came to a similar conclusion in 2010.  Washington Post

TX: The Long, Slow Death of the Trinity Toll Road. . . Let’s say that the Army Corps of Engineers gives us the green light to build the road. That decision would come in December. Before anything with the road can happen, though, the Corps says we have to move the river (in part because restoring its natural meander was the plan all along). The city’s portion of that work will cost $185 million, and the project would take nine years to complete. Our next bond vote will come in 2017. Don’t forget that the bond vote will have to address $900 million worth of needed street repairs. Let’s just say we tack on the $185 million for river meandering (a $1.085 billion bond!), and it passes. That means the river project can theoretically begin in 2017. Nine years later, construction of the toll road could begin — if a broke TxDOT can find a private partner willing to pay for it. D Magazine

NY: Report says charter schools draining enrollment from Catholic, public schools. Charter schools in the five boroughs are draining students from both the Catholic schools and district public schools, according to a report by the city’s Independent Budget Office. Over the last decade, the number of students attending Catholic schools has plummeted by 35 percent, from about 135,000 in 2002-2003, to just over 87,000 last year, according to the report. Meanwhile, during that same period, enrollment at district public schools dropped from more than a million students to just over 950,000. At the same time, the number of students attending charter schools jumped to nearly 59,000 last year, up from less than 2,500 a decade ago.  siLive.com

FL: Toll-road board members to appear before grand jury Thursday. . . State Attorney Jeff Ashton started his probe in September, saying he was looking into claims that Batterson, Pena and Downs privately talked about ousting former director Max Crumit from the job he held for two years. Authority business can be discussed only in public meetings. . .  But Ashton’s investigators also have been attending authority meetings where land purchases are discussed, including property owned by Project Orlando LLC, a company headed by Maitland attorney Jim Palmer. Project Orlando intends to build a billion-dollar development called Kelly Park Crossings by the sole interchange within 15 miles of the Wekiva Parkway, a $1.66 billion toll road being built by the authority and the state. IBI Group of Maitland, which employs Batterson, worked on Kelly Park Crossings until June 2011. Emails obtained by Ashton and reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel show Batterson was introducing potential investors to Palmer as recently as June. Orlando Sentinel

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The Privatization Backlash. . .In states and cities across the country, lawmakers are expressing new skepticism about privatization, imposing new conditions on government contracting, and demanding more oversight. Laws to rein in contractors have been introduced in 18 states this year, and three—Maryland, Oregon, and Nebraska—have passed legislation, according to In the Public Interest, a group that advocates what it calls “responsible contracting.” . . . From Halliburton to Healthcare.gov to private prisons and welfare systems, contracting has often proved problematic. Perhaps mindful of these high-profile debacles, lawmakers are now more likely to view privatization and contracting proposals with skepticism. “The ideological fervor for privatization has ebbed,” according to John D. Donahue, an expert on privatization at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. The Atlantic

The Privatization of Our Public Colleges (in Two Charts). State cuts to higher education spending aren’t the only reason public colleges are getting more expensive. But they are, without a doubt, one of the most important reasons. Slate Magazine (blog)

CO: Lawmakers ask for state audit of US 36 privatization deal. The controversial deal to privatize U.S. Highway 36, giving a consortium of private companies paying for repairs to the Boulder Turnpike control of the road for the next 50 years, is done.But the concerns from residents along the transportation corridor still haven’t been satisfied — and that’s why a group of state lawmakers from the area are calling for a state audit of the deal itself. . . Although the public-private partnership was worked out over a the last two years with input from the state and from mayors and officials in cities along the highway, the public didn’t get wind of the implications — mainly, the length of the deal ceding control of the road to private companies — until the final stages of the project. The letter requests that the audit examines how and when public input was sought and whether all financial details of the deal were disclosed. kdvr.com

PA: District wants Philadelphia charter school shut down. The School District of Philadelphia is recommending to the School Reform Commission the suspension and charter revocation of a school due to “significant academic underperformance and financial issues.” The recommendation, which takes aim at the Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School, is based on findings over the course of six years, accusing the school of continual violations of its charter and charter school law and policy. In addition, the district alleges it was fraudulently billed $770,000 in the 2012-2013 academic year for students not enrolled at the school.  6ABC.com

 

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OH: Ohio lawmaker wants private prison vendor canned. An Ohio state lawmaker says the state prisons department should terminate its contract with a private food service operator after fining the company last week for repeatedly failing to meet promised staffing levels. Democratic state Rep. Matt Lundy said Monday that deficiencies identified in Philadelphia-based Aramark Correctional Services’ performance reaffirm his and other opponents’ concerns about privatization. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction fined Aramark $142,100 Friday. The private food vendor took over feeding Ohio’s 50,000 prisoners from state employees in September. The contract goes to June 30, 2015. The ACLU says the fine should trigger a reevaluation of the deal.  10TV

TX: Corps: Trinity River needs to be moved to make way for toll road, which is likely to end up in litigation. . . It’s only when you get deep into the doc — on Page 87 out of 134 — that you realize the Trinity needs to be moved, at least in some spots, to make way for the toll road, which isn’t yet approved or funded. . .  Then there’s the fascinating chart found on Page 3-34 of the feasibility study — the table that shows what Dallas would get if it ditches the toll road. Because even the Corps recognizes: “There is a possibility that it may never be constructed.” And if that’s the case — if the NTTA does its own study and passes on spending $1.5 billion (give or take) to build the road and no one else wants to pick up the option — the Corps says “certain BVP features would be different.” How different? Well, we’d get more trails, fields and raised vegetation, for starters. But not necessarily more meadows, because: “To serve major events and gatherings, an additional 6,200 overflow parking spaces are proposed in separate meadow areas, the majority near the potential West Dallas Amphitheater.” So … We know what’s holding up the toll road. There’s no money to build it. But the feasibility study’s Appendix I also ID’s a few potential hold-up further down the toll road, including “Threat of Lawsuits/Political Opposition,” which a chart says would have a “critical” impact on the cost, and poses a “high” risk to the time line.  Dallas Morning News

OR: Suit Filed Challenging Sale of Elliott State Forest Land. . . “The Elliott State Forest is critically important to the survival of the marbled murrelet, coho salmon and hundreds of other species. It holds great promise for storing carbon to help insulate both people and wildlife from the devastation of climate change,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s not in the best interest of Oregonians or the planet to sell the Elliott to the highest bidder to be converted to an industrial tree farm. There’s a path forward for the state to protect important habitat and generate revenue for schools in Oregon.” The East Hakki Ridge parcel is one of five forested tracts the Department of State Lands has authorized for privatization. Combined, the parcels consist of approximately 2,700 acres of public land on the west side of the Elliott State Forest. One of the parcels being considered for disposal this fall contains the highest production of Endangered Species Act-listed coho salmon in the Oregon Coast Range, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and also is home to threatened marbled murrelets, according to survey data. And the state of Oregon has just revealed that it will soon be analyzing the possibility of selling off the entire Elliott State Forest.  eNews Park Forest

NC: School vouchers: helping students or hurting schools?. . . But whatever public and private schools have in common has increasingly been overshadowed by a divide created when North Carolina legislators approved using public money to help some low-income families afford private schools. Funding passed in the state General Assembly last year would provide as many as 2,400 public school students with up to $4,200 to go toward private school tuition, an effort that would cost about $10 million. Children qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches would be eligible. Jeffries calls them opportunity scholarships. For many in public education, they are vouchers.  Asheville Citizen-Times

Privatization or Bust: The Big Reveal In Ryan’s Latest Medicare Plan. Earlier this month, Loren Adler—a policy analyst at the Center for a Responsible Federal Budget—noticed a highly technical, but pivotal change to Paul Ryan’s plan to overhaul Medicare. It’s gotten little press, but it’s pretty big news that Ryan has shifted to premium support based on avg bid with no cap. . . . From my vantage point, though, the most interesting thing about the change is the way it reveals an ordering of the GOP’s priorities vis a vis federal programs in general. . . . What he hasn’t, and won’t ever give up on, no matter what experts ultimately conclude, is partial privatization. When push comes to shove, breaking government monopolies (and age-restricting eligibility) are the only things that really interest the GOP with respect to reforming entitlements.  The New Republic