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NC: The good, the bad, and the odd about the latest Commerce privatization proposal. . .But the committee also included provisions that change the North Carolina economic development partnership plan for the worse. Perhaps most critically, the updated legislation does not fully address the problems arising from pay-to-play incentive granting. Rather than explicitly eliminating pay-to-play by prohibiting businesses that donate to the new partnership from receiving state incentive grants, the legislation simply “encourages the nonprofit corporation to seek private funds from businesses and entities that are unlikely to seek economic development incentives or contacts with the state.” Although a step in the right direction, this “encouragement” is far too weak to adequately protect taxpayer dollars from companies that donate to the partnership solely to influence recommendations over incentive-granting. The Department of Commerce may well make the final determination over whether the company receives the incentives, but it appears unlikely that Commerce would ignore the recommendations of the partnership. As a result, the opportunity for pay-to-play remains intact.  The Progressive Pulse

FL: Records show emails between Orlando toll-road board member, developer. A board member of Orlando’s expressway authority offered to introduce possible investors to the managing partner of a billion-dollar development pegged to a toll road the agency is building, records reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel reveal. The documents indicate Scott Batterson of the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority helped connect three companies with Maitland attorney Jim Palmer, who heads Kelly Park Crossing, which would be constructed around the sole interchange of the Wekiva Parkway for nearly 15 miles.  Orlando Sentinel

OH: Why are charters in Ohio are very different from those in some other states?  Charters in Ohio collect $900 million yearly from taxpayers, but there are important questions they will not answer.  .  .“Who runs the building? “Who is that person’s supervisor? “Who is the management company in charge? “How does one contact the school board? “When does the board meet? “Only 1 in 4 Ohio Charter Schools answered these five basic questions. That’s right. Only 1 in 4 Charters told members of the public, who pay $900 million a year for these schools, when the school board meets. And these schools are called “public schools” throughout the Ohio Revised Code. Perhaps this is why courts around the country are finding that Charter Schools aren’t actually public schools? Because they act like private schools? DianeRavitch

GA: Georgia universities could become biggest test for privatizing college housing. Georgia is on course to become one of the nation’s largest experiments in privatized college dorms, but it’s unclear whether the changes will lower students’ bills at a time when university costs are soaring. The new arrangements would lease to private companies the future revenue streams from the dorms — essentially student rent. In exchange, companies would oversee maintenance, and also take on responsibility for any existing debt on leased properties.  The Republic

MI: Editorial: What we’d lose by privatizing Detroit’s water system. . . Make no mistake: All of the dire outcomes suburban leaders foretell will come to pass, regardless of who is in control the region’s water system. But private management will take the public’s voice out of the process. It’s a classic case of shortsighted politics taking precedence over sound policy, and that’s exactly what holds the region back from broader cooperation. Detroit Free Press

LA: Public-private partnerships growing in Louisiana. The concept of using public dollars to assist or attract private development is nothing new. Louisiana has long used tax increment financing (TIF) and other financial tools to help private companies offset initial investments or build faciltites that create jobs and serve a public interest. And those partnerships are becoming more prevalent in Northwest Louisiana.  Shreveport Times

FL: Privatize school buses? No way, says their union. The Hillsborough County school district is the county’s single biggest employer, and that includes more than 1,300 people in the transportation department. Their pay ranges from just under $8,000 for the aides who assist the special-needs children to between $70,000 and $104 for the top-level managers. Now the “P” word is being spoken: Privatize. . .  The suggestion comes as dozens of drivers turn out at community meetings to complain about their equipment, work conditions and the way the department is run. Not surprisingly, the idea did not sit well with their union, the Hillsborough Service Employees Federation.  Tampa Bay Times

CT: Plan to privatize Southington transfer station would limit resident access. A proposal for a local recycling company to operate the town’s bulky waste transfer station could save the town as much as $200,000 but reduce the number of free trips for residents. . . . Town Manager Garry Brumback said the company proposed limiting trips to the station to two per resident every six months. Residents would also have to separate waste or pay a fee to dump unsorted waste. . . In HQ’s presentation, Champagne said, the company overestimated how much the town spends on running the station, throwing off savings projections. “I don’t think they realized we’re that efficient,” said Champagne, a Republican.  Meriden Record-Journal

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No Agreement on How to Pay for Interstate Repairs. . . Lawmakers and some business groups are pushing to lift the ban on new tolls along existing Interstate highways, a move that would provide additional revenue for road maintenance and repair. But a coalition of some of the nation’s biggest companies, including FedEx and McDonald’s, are fighting to keep the Interstates as toll-free as possible. They argue that tolls would add significantly to the expense of moving their goods across the country. There is also a hidden cost, they say, for restaurants, convenience stores, gas stations and other businesses that depend on Interstate highway traffic. The tolls could cost them customers as travelers choose other routes. . . On the other side is the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, a group that represents toll companies and their vendors. It says adding tolls to highways that do not have them and increasing tolls that are already in place are the most sensible solutions for financing repairs to the nation’s deteriorating infrastructure.  New York Times

Public Schools for Sale? I continue my conversation with education historian Diane Ravitch about the privatization of public education. In this extra video, we talk about the problem with charter schools being run by billionaires, celebrities and individuals with no experience in education; the fact that taxpayers are increasingly funding religious schools and why hedge-fund managers see education as an emerging market. Huffington Post

The Thing About Privatization. Why are people so sure, if government generally screws things up, that they won’t also screw up privatization? Why should I trust a company that our incompetent, ineffective, inefficient government selected to take care of things? Isn’t the mere fact that the government thought they were up to the job evidence that they are not up to the job at all?Cryptic Philosopher

OH: Mayor Collins: I will not entertain plans to privatize Toledo Express Airport. Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins took a strong stance Wednesday, saying he will not entertain any plans to privatize the Toledo Express Airport. Collins went so far as to say he would veto any measure to privatize the airport passed by city council. Toledo News Now

IN: Contractors line up for Illiana Expressway jobs. Some of the largest contractors on the planet told local small businesses Thursday how they can get their own piece of the $1.5 billion Illiana Expressway project. . .  The Illiana Expressway would run 47 miles from Interstate 65 just northeast of Lowell to Interstate 55, near Wilmington, Ill. It has a projected cost of $1.5 billion. It will be operated as a toll road. Illinois and Indiana are developing the toll road as a public-private partnership, seeking private investment teams to help finance, design, build and operate it. . . . IDOT wants the winning bidder for the expressway project to hire disadvantaged businesses for 20 percent of the engineering work on the expressway and 25 percent of the actual construction.  nwitimes.com

NY: Cuomo Played Pivotal Role in Charter School Push. . . He instructed charter advocates to organize a large rally in Albany, the person said. The advocates delivered, bringing thousands of parents and students, many of them black, Hispanic, and from low-income communities, to the capital in early March, and eclipsing a pivotal rally for Mr. de Blasio taking place at virtually the same time. The moment proved to be a turning point, laying the groundwork for a deal reached last weekend that gave New York City charter schools some of the most sweeping protections in the nation, including a right to space inside public buildings. And interviews with state and city officials as well as education leaders make it clear that far from being a mere cheerleader, the governor was a potent force at every turn, seizing on missteps by the mayor, a fellow Democrat, and driving legislation from start to finish.   New York Times

NC: Troubled StudentFirst charter school closes abruptly. StudentFirst Academy charter school will close at the end of next week, parents learned at an emergency meeting Wednesday night. . . That leaves about 270 K-8 students scrambling to find schools less than two months before the school year ends. Parents who gathered at the school Thursday said they fear their children will fail state exams and could be forced to repeat a grade. The school’s problems have been well known since early this year, when the Observer reported on allegations of financial irregularities, mismanagement and academic shortcomings. State officials have been investigating since November and had talked about revoking the StudentFirst charter before it could reopen in August. Charlotte Observer

 

 

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Walton Family Foundation Puts $164 Million into Privatization. The Walton Family Foundation released its list of grantees in the education world, and once again, the foundation put its huge resources into privatizing American public education. The billions that hard-working families spend at Walmart are used to support privately managed charters and vouchers and to undermine democratic local control and traditional public schools. Some of the biggest recipients of the Walton family’s largesse are Teach for America (nearly $20 million), which staffs non-union charters; KIPP charter schools ($8.8 million); the Charter Fund, Inc. ($14.5 million); The Children’s Scholarship Fund (which gives our school vouchers) $8.56 million; and the California Charter School Association, $5 million. Parent Revolution got almost $2 million, the Black Alliance for Educational Options got $1.3 million. DianeRavich’sBlog

IN: INDOT takes stab at privatizing Amtrak route. The Indiana Department of Transportation has put out an open-ended request for proposals to privatize all or part of Amtrak’s Hoosier State train service between Chicago and Indianapolis. . . . Bidders can choose to bid on providing only part of the services provided by Amtrak or even come up with new ones, such as Wi-Fi on trains or food service, according to the request for proposals.  Nwitimes.com

CA: Assembly resolution blasts outsourcing . . .House Resolution 29 by Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles, sets up it’s anti-outsourcing position with a number of findings: The policy undermines “the underpinnings of democracy itself” – transparency, accountability, and shared prosperity and competition. It gives taxpayers less say over government spending. And, the resolution says, contracting government business to private entities fuels what are often substandard wages for contract employees. . . . The resolution, which doesn’t have the force of law, “urges local officials to become familiar with the provisions of the Taxpayer Empowerment Agenda.” That agenda calls for government to be more accountable with its contracting agreements and to require contractors meet certain standards, such as paying contract employees a living wage. It also encourages governments to ban contract language that guarantees profits from government work. The agenda was developed by an affiliate of The Partnership for Working Families, a national coalition of community groups with ties to labor unions. Sacramento Bee

OH: Toledo council hearing on airport privatization canceled. The Treece family proposal to take over operations of Toledo Express Airport seemed last month to have traction with Rob Ludeman, the Toledo councilman overseeing economic development, but today he said a public hearing on the idea would be canceled. . . . Mayor Collins has said he has no plan to propose privatizing Toledo Express Airport. . . Dock Dave Treece said the meeting cancelation was “obviously a setback” but that they would continue to push for their privatization of the airport operations. Since their idea became public in October, the Treece airport initiative has attracted no significant business or political backing, and some national aviation experts have said airport privatization is not a growing trend and is a complicated project at best. Toledo Blade

MS: Ocean Springs Aldermen vote not to privatize public works. . .The news that the city was considering privatizing its Public Works Department had many city workers and citizens concerned. Many of them filled the meeting room at Tuesday’s Board of Aldermen meeting to make their concerns known. . .One of the many things workers were worried about was their retirement. . .  Public Works Director Andre Kaufman said many of his employees had already started looking for other jobs. . . . “I’ve got six people who work for me that worked for private companies from other cities and they say horror stories,” said Kaufman. Some residents also spoke about their experiences with public works. They noted the city’s reliability and flexibility when public works is called. They feared that experience would change if a private company were to take over. “To me, privatizing a major part of your city government is major, and I think that should be brought before the people,” said Ocean Spring’s resident Tim Emery. Aldermen said they will still look for ways to cut expenses.  WLOX

TX: “Stealth Privatization” of Dallas ISD Attracts Growing Opposition. . . WHEREAS Houston billionaire John Arnold, a hedge-fund manager and former Enron trader, is bankrolling an effort to transform all of the Dallas Independent School District into a so-called “home-rule charter district” that would not be subject to essential safeguards in state law for students, parents, teachers, and citizens of the district; WHEREAS John Arnold is notorious for funding a nationwide attack on public employees’ pension funds, including state pension funds for school employees, and for funding various efforts to privatize the operation of public schools, including substantial financing of organizations that promote private-school vouchers.  Hemlock on the Rocks

 

 

 

 

 

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TN: For-profit charter school bill clears House committee. For-profit companies moved closer to being able to operate charter schools in Tennessee after a much-debated bill eked out a key legislative victory Tuesday. The Tennessean

PA: Critics Alarmed Over Pa. Legal Fees Paid to Firms. Legal feels are racking up in Pennsylvania, according to Dennis Owens of the ABC News branch there. He filed a “request-to-know” with the Office of General Counsel and discovered that DLA Piper billed (and collected) more than $3 million in legal fees on a lottery privatization plan that didn’t go through, Drinker Biddle & Reath was awarded a contract for nearly $1 million in a Voter ID case and Cozen O’Connor received $631,128.98 for Jerry Sandusky scandal-related legal issues.Some critics claim these outside contracts are an inside job, reports Owens, who quotes John Hanger, a former Democratic candidate for governor, with alleging the firms who receive the fees also have, not coincidentally, donated a lot of money to the governor. “Most of the time that’s an excuse to write nice checks to people who have given you campaign donations,” Hanger told Owens. Corporate Counsel

PA: PennDOT Invites Contractors to Bid Contract for 500 Public-Private Bridges. The selected team will manage the bridges’ design, construction and maintenance for a yet-to-be-determined number of years under one contract. The team will be responsible for financing the effort and PennDOT will make payments based on the contractor’s adherence to the contract terms. PennDOT will continue to own all of the bridges and will be responsible for routine maintenance, such as snow plowing and debris removal.  ForConstructionPros.com

KY: University Students Bring Concerns About Public-Private Dining Partnership. The University of Kentucky’s consideration of a public-private partnership for dining services got attention from two fronts during Monday’s meeting. The UK Board of Trustees meeting began with a  student protest.  The protesters asked the board to reject any and all proposals to privatize public dining services at the school.  Their primary concern is with one potential vendor, the Sodexo Group.  The students say Sodexo cited the Affordable Care Act as a reason to cut off full-time benefits for some of its employees at another school.  WEKU

VT: House takes up school privatization bill. The House has started work on a Senate bill calling for a two-year moratorium on privatizing public schools. Under the Senate plan, voters still would be allowed to close an elementary or school in order to send students to another town. But under the provisions of S.91, towns would be prohibited from closing a public school in order to open an independent school in its place.  vtdigger.org

NC: Cornelius anti-toll group names NC Rep. Robert Brawley legislator of year. Toll Free NC, the Cornelius-based group opposed to toll roads, named N.C. Rep. Robert Brawley, R-Mooresville, as its Legislator of the Year on Tuesday. The group said Brawley “stands on principle and speaks the truth even when it’s against his party.” “The private toll lanes on I-77 will end up costing my constituents over half a billion dollars, when we can widen the road where we need it for less than a fifth of that,” Brawley said in a statement accompanying the group’s announcement.“The private company wants the general purpose lanes to be as congested as possible so drivers will have an incentive to pay the toll,” Brawley said. “At the end of the day, instead of solving our congestion problems, the toll lanes ensure congestion.”  Charlotte Observer

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Video: Bill Moyers: Public Schools for Sale? Public education is becoming big business as bankers, hedge fund managers and private equity investors are entering what they consider to be an “emerging market.” As Rupert Murdoch put it after purchasing an education technology company, “When it comes to K through 12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the US alone.” Huffington Post

YES! Magazine Challenges Myth of Failing Public Schools. Education Uprising, the Spring 2014 issue of YES! Magazine, questions the assumptions of standardized testing, revisits the statistics used to justify public policy in schools, and imagines a more inclusive and just classroom for all. For decades, the myth of failing public schools justified industrial-scale testing and a privatization agenda. Now, activist educators nationwide are bursting the bubble test, getting culturally relevant, and restoring justice to the classroom. DigitalJournal.com

Crisis in Correctional Care: Pressing for Prison Reform. . . One final area to watch is privatization.  Gabe Eber, Staff Counsel to the ACLU’S National Prison Project, say government alone should administer prisons and the healthcare they provide: “By adding a private, for-profit corporation, you’re changing the nature of the punishment.  You’re giving this corporation considerable power over prisoners who are in the custody of the state, and when you put a profit motive into the provision of healthcare, it may not necessarily be in the interest of the taxpayers or more importantly the prisoners.” But the business of caring for prisoners appears to be a profitable one, and companies pay to play. Virginia’s largest provider of medical services to prisons, Corizon, paid lobbyists here more than $21,000 this year, and its CEO gave $500 to the campaign of Republican Ken Cucinelli.  Another  provider, the GEO Group, spent nearly $15,000 on lobbyists, and one of their top competitors, Armor Correctional Health Services, contributed $25,000 to the campaign of Democrat Terry McAuliffe. WVTF

IN: Investment Firms Buy Chunk of Indiana Toll Road Debt. . . .Indiana Toll Road, which spans about 157 miles between the Ohio Turnpike and Chicago Skyway, has struggled over the past few years with lower-than-expected traffic and a $5.8 billion debt load. The road is operated by units of Ferrovial and Macquarie Group. . . Distressed investing firms have been buying up Indiana Toll Road debt over the past 12 to 18 months, in some cases building positions of more than $100 million, some of these people said. These firms increase their stakes when mostly European lenders sell, including another roughly $500 million trade a few weeks earlier by another European bank, one of these people said. The changing base of creditors has shifted the tide in this restructuring, according to people involved. Some European banks have been unwilling to take write-downs on the toll road debt, but other banks are starting to change course, these people said. More than 40 lenders hold pieces of the company’s debt, they said. A steering committee of lenders including European banks Banco Santander and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA was appointed last year. Wall Street Journal

OR: Liquor privatization: Fred Meyer, Safeway kick in big-dollar donations. More than $1 million has rolled into the campaign to privatize Oregon liquor sales in recent days, according to election records posted Monday. Two big grocery chains put in the money. Fred Meyer, which already had contributed a half a million dollars, added another $500,000, bringing its total to $1 million so far. Safeway, a new donor, gave $656,500. Earlier, the national Distilled Spirits Council kicked in $200,000. A full-fledged opposition campaign has yet to form. The Oregonian

CA: School Boards Association’s Pres. takes on Netflix CEO’s call for privatization for school boards. Josephine Lucey, President of the California School Boards Association and a Cupertino Union School District board member, took on Netflix CEO Reed Hastings’ controversial assertion that voter-elected school boards hamper sustainable school improvement. Lucey’s opinion, published on the San Francisco Chronicle’s open online forum, points out what Hastings seems to have forgotten, “Public oversight of local government is the foundation of American democracy.” . .  . Turning to privatization of school boards, Lucey counters, would be akin to suggesting that publicly owned corporations have no responsibility to listen to their shareholders. Who is there to keep the board accountable if not for voters?  School Board News

NJ: Is Christie-Backed One Newark Reform Plan Good For Newark’s Students?….That said, the growth in charter schools is particularly galling to One Newark opponents, who see the hand of controversial Governor Chris Christie behind what opponents believe is a privatization push masquerading as improved “public” education. Indeed, parents and teachers contend that One Newark is merely a shake-up of underperforming schools in disadvantaged parts of the district, with little data to back up the state’s reform effort. . . . “One Newark is a program that appears to place sanctions on schools — including closure, charter, takeover and ‘renewal’ — on the basis of student test outcomes, without regard for student background,” the report reads. “The schools under sanction may have lower proficiency rates, but they also serve more challenging student populations.” The report notes that, when student population dynamics are accounted for, cumulative test scores of the schools slated for closure in fact surpass those that would not be affected by the reform.  Forbes

NY: Lawmakers dump lab plan. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s novel plan to let the private sector finance a $600 million state public health lab in Albany may have been just a little too novel for state lawmakers consumed with sexier and less complex budget issues. The Legislature dropped the proposal for a consolidated mega-lab on the Harriman State Office Campus from the state budget that was approved Monday night. . . . Known as a “P-3” — for public-private partnership — the plan would have allowed the state to enter into a 50-year pact with a firm charged with designing, building and operating the state-owned facility in return for annual “service payments” from state coffers.  Albany Times Union

 

 

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Which For-Profit College Lobbyist Are You?. . .Predatory for-profit colleges use deceptive and coercive tactics to pressure students into signing up. More than half of for-profit college students drop out within about four months. Although the for-profits promise that their programs are affordable, the real cost of some schools can be nearly double that of Harvard. And graduates often struggle to find jobs beyond shifts at Office Depot. The U.S. Department of Education just reported that 72 percent of the for-profit college programs it analyzed produced graduates who on average earned less than high school dropouts. As a result, today, 13 percent of all college students attend for-profit colleges, on campuses and online — but these institutions account for 47 percent of student loan defaults. It’s not just students who are harmed. For-profit colleges get more than $30 billion a year in federal student grants and loans; many get almost 90 percent of their revenue from federal aid. When a student defaults on a federal loan, taxpayers must foot the bill; the for-profit college already has been paid.  Huffington Post

Sheppard Air Force Base: Uncounted Costs of Privatizing Government Services. . .In fact, there are very good reasons why government cannot operate properly when it is run like a business, says Forbes contributing writer John T. Harvey. He notes, “We should no more want the government to be run like a business than a business to be run like the government. … The problem in a nutshell, is that not everything that is profitable is of social value and not everything of social value is profitable.” Harvey’s observations on privatization, published by capitalist tool Forbes Magazine, clearly have been lost on the Department of Defense, which has been a major user of contractors.  Truth-Out

IN: Public-private plan for I-69 work proves divisive. Gov. Mike Pence is getting ready to sign onto a deal with a Dutch-led contractor to construct and maintain the section between Bloomington and Martinsville. Under terms of that contract, the state would make an $80 million “down payment” to the private partner, which would pay the $325 million estimated for construction. Once that section of highway is complete, the state starts paying the partner $21.8 million a year for 35 years and the company maintains the highway. . . Supporters say the public-private partnership is innovative, but critics say the deal will end up costing Indiana taxpayers more in the long run. . . “It’s a quick easy fix for government that can’t afford to build and maintain the roads that people want. By at least getting it out there, the question is, is that fair to the next generation? We have pushed off the burden to future generations, years beyond what we would be normally paying,” said Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington.  Chron.com

NY: State Protections for Charter Schools Threaten de Blasio’s Education Goals. Mayor Bill de Blasio has mapped out an ambitious agenda for education in New York City. He wants to reinvigorate schools on the verge of shuttering, open 100 schools with health clinics and therapists at their core, and train more students for careers in science and technology. But the budget deal announced by state leaders on Saturday, which would require the city to find space for charter schools, may cut into Mr. de Blasio’s priorities. Charter schools, which serve about 6 percent of students citywide, are poised to expand significantly in New York over the next several years, potentially attracting as much as 10 percent of students by 2017, according to education advocates. And it is up to the state — not the city — to approve any new charter schools, leaving Mr. de Blasio virtually powerless to stop their growth. New York Times

CT: Bob Horton: Private influence on public parks. . .When the Parks Department presented its proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1, it included more than $400,000 for the renovation of Greenwich Commons, the park just north of the Havemeyer Building on Greenwich Avenue. That project seemingly came out of nowhere, and when finance board members asked Parks and Recreation Director Joseph Siciliano why it had suddenly risen near the top of the list, he answered that a private donor whom he would not identify had committed $250,000 to the work. Plus, I understand the private donor was hoping to ban soccer or any other ball playing on the field as a condition of the gift. It is not unreasonable of donors to put conditions on gifts, but when it affects public spaces, uses should not be subject to private whims. Greenwich Time

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Charter-boosters’ ugly civil rights scam. Corporate education reformers are coopting the politics of race and labor, author Micah Uetricht explains.  Salon

‘Private Option’ for Medicaid Expansion Would Cut Some Benefits. . . At issue are so-called “wraparound” benefits, such as free rides to doctor’s offices, designed to give low-income people the same kind of care and health outcomes as people with higher incomes. Such benefits typically are not included in private insurance plans. “Medicaid is different from private insurance for a lot of good reasons,” said Joan Alker, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. “Trying to make it look like private insurance without Medicaid’s unique features could lead to worse health outcomes, increased hospitalization and more preventable deaths.”. . . Other benefits include the periodic screening, diagnosis and treatment of children and young adults for conditions such as lead poisoning, malnutrition and mental illness, as well as limits on co-pays and premiums, which can prompt people to do without care. Stateline

NY: State reaches tentative deal to protect charter schools. Cuomo and legislative leaders reached a tentative deal Thursday on a package that will offer charter schools greater protections – increasing per pupil spending and providing rent money for the first time. New York Daily News

FL: Editorial: Hear out the toll road skeptics…. The idea is pushed by a consortium of private companies known as Florida 54 Express. It wants to lease state right of way so it can build and operate an east-west 33-mile elevated toll road from U.S. 19 to U.S. 301. Steinman dubbed it a high-level concept with few details. There is no technical data, no engineering study, no traffic and revenue projection. That is why he suggested community opposition is premature. But what is known should give the DOT and the county reason to pause. The private suitors, International Infrastructure Partners and OHL Infrastructure, are expected to provide detailed information to the DOT next month. The state should be careful in its review to avoid a repeat of past performance. OHL’s toll road in Madrid, Spain, recently entered bankruptcy proceedings after high construction costs and falling traffic counts triggered unexpected financial difficulties, according to international press accounts. Tampa Bay Times

KY: Kentucky Senate Approves Measure Creating Public-Private Partnerships for Infrastructure Projects. A bill that would permit private corporations to partner with government to finance infrastructure projects is one step closer to becoming law. Filed by Rep. Leslie Combs, House Bill 407 passed the Senate by a 27-9 vote, and would allow local governments to partner with businesses to fund infrastructure projects. Dissenting members worried that the legislation would afford private companies too much influence on public projects, and expressed concern over accountability of the process. WKU Public Radio

 

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Public-sector pensions united unions and business leaders against privatization. The refrain of privatization seems to play over and over. Our cities are going broke and can’t afford to make retirement payments; public health nurses, city park employees, and other workers who provide important services will not get what they worked hard for all their lives; and the only way out is to put pensions into the hands of privately held corporations. Or at least, that’s what the tea party and other political interests would have us believe. Fortunately, there is a recent example of a city where people have fought back against this prevailing narrative and won: Cincinnati. Although public employee pensions may seem an unlikely proving ground for new alliances between local unions and business leaders, the people of Cincinnati showed that unity was possible when, last November, 78 percent of voters rejected a tea-party-backed ballot measure that would have drastically altered the retirement prospects for city workers.  Al Jazeera America

Most Anything Is Fair Game in Portugal’s Quest for Cash, Including the Mirós. . .The government’s announcement that it would sell the collection through the auction house Christie’s in London set off intense discussion of what kind of assets the state should be allowed to sell, and whether the nation’s cultural heritage is off limits. Portugal’s controversy has now become part of a broader debate across Europe’s hard-hit, if historically treasured, southern tier over the virtues and limits of downsizing government, often centered on the public preservation or privatization of cultural patrimony that touches on the raw nerves of national identity. “The obsession with eliminating everything that is public is leading the government to go further down the privatization road, and perhaps they consider paintings to be part of the same strategy,” said Gabriela Canavilhas, a Socialist lawmaker and Portugal’s former culture minister. “But even in Detroit, which was declared bankrupt, their final decision was not to sell any art.”  New York Times           

31 state chambers push for 5-year transportation bill. Several state chambers — 31, to be exact — are urging Congress to pass a five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill. . . The letter also notes that the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave the U.S. a grade of D+ on its Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, as well as the estimated $3.6 trillion needed for infrastructure by 2020. The letter outlines four areas the chambers want Congress to consider while working on a new bill: “At minimum, a five-year authorization to provide predictability and certainty to a sector of our economy that needs stability and growth; dedicated federal funds to ensure the solvency of the Highway Trust Fund; flexibility for states to invest in transportation infrastructure as they deem necessary; and freedom for states to choose their own funding options.”  Better Roads

NY: Education groups lobby against building aid for charter schools. In a legislative memo being circulated to state lawmakers in the final days of budget negotiations, the group, called the Educational Conference Board, argues that charter schools are already a financial burden on school districts. To now give them access to a pot of funds intended for district schools would further undermine the state’s ability to fully fund district schools, the memo contends. . . The coalition is made up of groups representing teachers, parents, school boards, superintendents and school budget officials. Yagielski said “they don’t always agree on everything,” but the fact that such a diverse group is lined up in opposition is an example of the threat seen by charter schools. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders in the Assembly and Senate are mulling a plan to provide facilities funding to charter schools that operate in private space.  Chalkbeat New York

IL: Board to privatize recess. One month after voting to privatize what is left of custodial services, the Chicago Board of Education is poised, at its meeting of March 26, 2014, to privatize recess. A Board Report on the agenda for the March 26, 2014 meeting calls for the Board to hire two dozen outside agencies, all of them non-union and most anti-union, to provide various recess services. The vote to further privatize custodial services was taken at the Board meeting of February 26, 2014. Privatization of custodial work has begun in all schools that have unionized custodial workers as this report is written. substancenews.net

FL: PACA gives a big no to elevated toll road. . .PACA represents 60,000 residents living in homeowners associations, condominium associations and community development district-managed communities. . . International Infrastructure Partners has proposed a private venture estimated by some to cost $2.2 billion that would build a 33-mile elevated toll road from U.S. 301 in Zephyrhills to U.S. 19 in New Port Richey. A group of residents living along the State Road 54/56 corridor have organized against the project, speaking out at recent meetings hosted by the county. However, it is ultimately up to the Florida Department of Transportation to make a final decision, although officials there say they won’t proceed without the blessing of the county.  The Laker/Lutz News

CA: Santa Ana, California Dumps Red Light Cameras. . .A unanimous Santa Ana City Council decided last week to stop doing business with Redflex Traffic Systems based on a staff proposal that would end photo ticketing once the Redflex contract expires on June 21, 2015. . . Councilman Vincent Sarmiento offered the resolution to end use of cameras citing the “excessive fine” of $490 that the embattled Australian firm issued last year to 30,099 in the city. Out of the $14,748,510 worth of tickets mailed, the city’s cut was $2,541,745. TheNewspaper.com

News

TX: Toll Opponents Say Aggressive Collection by TxDOT is Proof of ‘Failed Policy’. In a very controversial move, the Texas Department of Transportation is announced it will begin seizing the cars of motorists who have failed to pay tolls on the state’s growing network of toll roads, essentially turning TxDOT into a taxpayer funded collection agency for the private companies which operate the toll roads, 1200 WOAI news reports. . . . But Terri Hall, the founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom and a long time anti toll road activist, says the idea that taxpayer money is being used to allow TxDOT to become ‘collection goons’ for private companies is outrageous. . . . Under the Public Private Partnership agreements under which many toll roads and toll lanes are build, private companies, like San Antonio based Zachry American Infrastructure, build the roads under a fifty year agreement with the state which allows the private companies to collect the tolls.  But if people don’t pay the tolls, it is the taxpayers who have to make up the difference.  And Hall says the PPP policy was clearly not thought through, because there is no way to collect tolls from out of state and out of country motorists who aren’t subject to Texas penalties, like tickets and refusal to renew their car registration. 1200 WOAI

MI: Detroit Seeks Proposals to Privatize Its Water System. This bankrupt city is seeking proposals from private companies to run and potentially buy its regional water and sewer system as talks to lease it to the city’s suburbs have stalled. The move to at least partially privatize one of the nation’s largest water systems comes as the city considers unloading assets to finalize its debt-cutting plan, which is expected to be voted on by creditors this spring. . .But suburban leaders so far have balked at their potential share of future costs for system improvements and unpaid water bills. It is still possible the city-owned system could continue to be run as a municipal department from Detroit, said a person familiar with the matter. Privatizing water and sewer service in southeast Michigan could provide a test case for advocates who argue the private sector would bring greater efficiency and needed improvement to aging systems nationally. Opponents of such privatization efforts fear rate increases and question turning a public entity into a profit-making enterprise. . .”If Detroit does this, it will probably be the first really big public-private effort in the last 10 years,” said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, a California environmental-research and advocacy group that studies water privatization and other issues. Wall Street Journal

MA: Hundreds of Boston parents band together to oppose charter school expansion. The parents say that cities and the state cannot afford to fund additional schools, pointing out for instance that the Boston school system is facing budget cuts. Members of the group have been meeting with key lawmakers, testifying at legislative hearings, and circulating an online petition advocating against a bill that would lift a state-imposed cap on charter school enrollment. As of Sunday, the petition had received more than 2,200 signatures. The campaign is believed to be the largest and most aggressive parent-driven effort in the state to stop raising the charter-school cap. It follows a similar effort by teachers unions, which have launched letter-writing campaigns to persuade legislators to oppose the measure.  Boston Globe

NJ: NJ Senate President Tells Turnpike Authority to Lay Off Toll Collection Privatization. Today, NJ state senate president Steve Sweeney urged board members to abandon the concept, insisting that unionized collectors have already given enough: some $30 million worth of concessions in their last contract. “If they (the Turnpike Authority) want to be more efficient, they should look at reducing the amount of administration that they have, because that’s where the real salaries are,” Sweeney said. CBS Local

HI: Public-private partnership plan for Hawaii’s correctional system. State Sen. Will Espero introduced a resolution on public-private partnerships for jails, prisons and other correctional facilities. A Senate panel listened to testimony from supporters and opponents during a hearing on Monday. . . . Private sector involvement would be limited to planning, construction and financing. The state would still run the facilities. The Department of Public Safety supports the proposal since the changes could ease overcrowding and help cut the agency’s costs. Hawaii News Now

In Defense of Public Higher Education – Paul Stoller. In recent months waves of ignorant criticism have flooded the airwaves with a great deal of blather about the nature of higher education at public universities and colleges. Consider the case of Ohio State Representative Andrew Brenner (R) who recently suggested that public education is socialism. Other such critics have said that our colleges are much like indoctrination campus that steer our young people away from “family” values and “free market” ideology. Taking their cue from the more neoliberal wing of conservative thought, a growing group of state legislators have used the rationale of “living within our means” to cut funding for public universities and colleges. Feeling the squeeze, public universities and colleges have trimmed “unproductive” programs like philosophy, music and foreign languages, and have replaced expensive retiring professors with inexpensive temporary instructors. Huffington Post

‘Billion-dollar bet’ on Postal Service. The Postal Service wants to cut its workforce, expand into new markets and products, and modernize all of its systems as part of its bid to transform itself into a highly-responsive digital organization. The Postal Service plans to shrink its workforce by 10,000 positions in fiscal 2015, according to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. The reductions will be entirely through attrition — there will be no buy-outs or reductions in force. . . .The ultimate goal is for the Postal Service to reduce its career workforce from about 485,000 to around 400,000, with about 65,000 full-time non-career workers. But the Postal Service can do that only with the added flexibility provided by legislation pending in Congress. The bill would also allow USPS to waive the required pre-funding of its retiree health benefits — about $5.5 billion a year — and would give it greater flexibility to reduce the size of its workforce and end Saturday delivery.  Federal Times

Why We Are REALLY Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. Non-profits are being employed by finance capital to cement its privatization agenda, thus making the institution not only limiting in nature but thoroughly corrupting as well. Teach for America (TFA) and LIFT are two non-profits currently serving the privatization agenda.  Financial corporations, such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Bank of America and capitalists like the Walton and Gates families, fund both LIFT and TFA.  Dissident Voice

 

News

Editorial: ‘Private’ toll roads lead to good fortune only for the boodlers. Toll roads are all the rage with those who expect to get rich with deals called “innovative” public-private partnerships. The idea of tossing a coin into a basket for the privilege of traveling on a road is a stale and frayed idea that only seems fresh. It’s a crony idea that gives off more than a whiff of corruption. Consider what’s happening in Virginia. As Gov. Bob McDonnell was leaving office, his suitcase stuffed with goodies collected from his “admirers,” he auctioned as many of the state’s roads as he could find to foreigners willing to buy them. Now taxpayers are even paying for the advertisements needed to make those foreign investors rich.  Washington Times

CA: California Contracts With Private Prisons To Alleviate Overcrowding. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling that condemned California for prison overcrowding, which was leading to the deaths of at least one inmate per week. . . Gov. Brown hoped to implement long-term solutions that would “help inmates become productive members of society and make our communities safer,” but he has turned to a solution that may very well exacerbate, rather than solve, California’s mass incarceration crisis: privatization.  Neon Tommy

GA: Georgia’s Push to Privatize Foster Care Fails. A push to privatize the child welfare system in Georgia failed in the final hours of the state’s legislative session Thursday. The bill, which was introduced by the state senate in February, aimed to begin contracting out most child welfare services — like adoption and case management — to private agencies by the summer of 2017. . . . But the momentum to privatize the system worried some child welfare advocates in the state, who said the talks were happening too fast, too soon. Full privatization of the foster care system has been rolled out in states like Nebraska and Florida, but not without criticism. In Nebraska, a Youth Today story found that privatization has been largely characterized as a failure after the state’s leading child services agencies withdrew their contracts due to financial reasons.  Youth Today

IN: Lake Station EMS workers protest privatizing ambulance service. Medics from the Lake Station Fire Department picketed Saturday along Fairview Avenue in protest of the city’s move to privatize its ambulance service. Almost two dozen part-time paramedics and EMTs will lose their jobs with the city. Nwi.com

TN: TN state park hikers share views on privatizing. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation started looking into the possibility of privatizing state parks when they filed a request for information to potential contractors in February. . .Fisk University student Quin Gathers said that, while she understood some of the financial benefits of the state contracting out park management, she was skeptical there would be that much money saved. “It’s a park,” she said. “If the state wants to save money, there’s got to be a better way to do it.” Nashville resident Vincent Anderson was supportive of privatizing the parks, if only because he believed companies could manage better than governments. For many, there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered before they decide what to think about it.   The Tennessean

PA: New proposal ditches privatization for modernization of state liquor sales. The effort last year to get the state out of the booze business went flat… But with a budget deficit looming heavy on the minds of state lawmakers, there is a new push to shake things up. And a new proposal to modernize — not privatize — Pennsylvania’s state store system is likely to do just that.. . .The proposal, which would give the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board the ability to open more stores on Sundays and flexibility to set prices, contrasts greatly with previous legislation to sell the state stores to private business. Lancaster Newspapers

NY: From de Blasio, Gentler Words About Charter Schools. For weeks, Mr. de Blasio had been locked in a battle with advocates of charter schools, who were denouncing him around the clock in a $3.6 million advertising blitz. The results were beginning to show: His education agenda seemed rudderless, and his popularity in polls was slipping. So on Sunday, Mr. de Blasio struck a conciliatory tone, acknowledging missteps and emphasizing common ground. New York Times

LA: Plan would place toll road around Baton Rouge. . .”Hopefully it would get a lot of trucks from going through the middle of town because they will have a way to get around,” Foil said. However, the effort faces huge financial and political obstacles. The initial price tag is unclear. Estimates range from $700 million to $1 billion. The undertaking also hinges on finding a private firm willing to enter into a public-private partnership, build the road, then rely on tolls to repay the costs, plus a profit. Finding a private company to do the work may be a daunting task, especially because no such mega projects have been erected that way in Louisiana.  The Advocate