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Public parks are becoming gardens of private wealth. Sitting in the Sunken Overlook amphitheatre on the High Line – the public garden that runs along a former elevated railway on the west side of Manhattan – is like being in a museum of the 20th century….. But they are not public parks in the classic sense. They reflect the fact that inner cities are tilting from places into which industrial workers crowded, often in nasty conditions, into the preserve of what Richard Florida, the urban theorist, calls “the creative class”. Instead of freight railways, docks and warehouses, they want lofts and gardens. Financial Times

Education Dept. spells out five charter school priorities. The U.S. Education Department under Secretary Arne Duncan has for years been supportive of public charter schools, even requiring states that wanted Race to the Top money or federal waivers from No Child Left Behind to expand their numbers. Now the department is trying to figure out what requirements to attach to future federal grants for charter schools, and is seeking public comment on its proposed priorities as spelled out in the Federal Register (text of notice below). Washington Post (blog)           

Wall Street’s Police State?….. As public revenues falter, pressure will mount to privatize more and more correctional facilities and law enforcement functions, opening up lucrative opportunities for more privatization and more Wall Street loans to make it happen.  Huffington Post

UT: Cottonwood Heights to use govt plows after privatization complaints. City leaders announced a plan Thursday to bring in Salt Lake County to help plow streets and chip away hardened ice. The arrangement comes after residents and leaders alike slammed the response of Terracare — a private company hired earlier this fall to handle the city’s public works — to a snowstorm that hit Tuesday. Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore said Terracare’s snow removal was poorly executed, while residents complained of unprecedented bad service and called the situation a failure for privatized public works.  Salt Lake Tribune

IL: Crowd opposed to privatizing garbage collection; mayor says city will try to address concerns. The crowd was not as combative, but the message from the second public hearing Thursday night on proposed changes to the city’s garbage and recycling program was the same: Most residents oppose privatizing collection.   Quincy Herald Whig

IL: A tale of two Chicagos…. That Emanuel’s vision for Chicago excludes many residents was driven home by the closing of almost 50 public schools this year, predominantly in those neighborhoods…. Similar dynamics are playing out across the country. Mayors and governors have made headlines in recent years by attacking public sector unions and privatizing education, health care, mass transit and other services. Like Emanuel, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger have clashed with teachers unions. Former Newark Mayor Cory Booker and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg also pushed privatization, laid off public employees and otherwise adopted a leaner and more market-based approach to city government. During a seven-day teachers strike in 2012, many protestors waved signs downtown comparing Emanuel to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, famous for his standoff with public workers, including teachers.  Al Jazeera America

WA: Privatization disastrous  – letter to the editor…Despite the Trib’s best efforts to distort reality, liquor privatization in Washington state has been a disaster for consumers and every single resident of the Evergreen State. The Trib cites the “nonpartisan” Washington Policy Center, conveniently ignoring that it is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council, well known for its blind devotion to a radical right-wing agenda. The Trib parrots the claim that documented DUIs and other crimes have decreased since privatization in Washington state, but doesn’t point out that the state police complement has been cut by 80 troopers. The editorial ignores the fact that Washington state police cite the reduction in staff as the main reason for any reduction in arrests. The Tribune-Review

 

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Here Is Your Bible of Privatization Horror Stories. A just-released draft report by In the Public Interest, a nonprofit contracting watchdog, offers nationwide look into just how the push for privatization is screwing up everything, from sick nuns to broken roads to beaten foster children. Gawker

US toll road industry improving, Moody’s report says. The outlook for the U.S. toll road industry is improving, thanks to a stronger economy and a slow but steady increase in toll traffic this year that’s expected to continue in 2014, a Moody’s Investors Service report said. San Antonio Express

Wall Street is designing the future of public education as a money-making machine…. The few power brokers mentioned so far are a handful of the many venture capitalists, hedge fund managers, CEOs, and politicians who are connected through a tangled and overlapping web of affiliations with nonprofits, businesses, and PACs (committees organized to raise and spend money in order to influence elections) dedicated to education privatization. TFA and LEE are two organizations that are part of the connective tissue. Salon

Meet Jeffry Sterba, America’s Highest Paid “Water Worker”…. American Water has been a major force behind the privatization of water services and has come under fire from communities across the country for charging high rates and providing poor services. In 2012, American Water generated $2.9 billion in total operating revenue. CMD estimates that approximately 89 percent of this revenue comes from taxpayers.  PR Watch

NC: N.C. Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker is leading the privatization effort. This 10-year strategic plan is expected to be a blueprint for the new, nonprofit Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina Inc. that was incorporated in September. The partnership, created at the behest of the General Assembly this year, will be a privately run entity with its own CEO and board of directors that will work in collaboration with the Commerce Department to “assist, promote and enhance economic opportunities” in the state.  Triangle Business Journal

FL: Jacksonville considers privatizing medical examiner office. The report criticized how she’s run the office. It noted things like excessive spending on items like autopsy saws.  The office gets 2.5 million taxpayer dollars and this report said it can go a long way with the right person in charge. The goal is to find the most effective way to run the office,” said city of Jacksonville spokesman David DeCamp.  ActionNewsJax.com

WA: Inmates, Whitman debaters argue privatization. The debate over privatizing U.S. prisons probably never had participants as involved as these.  Two teams composed of Washington State Penitentiary inmates mixed with Whitman College students took on the issue Tuesday in a first debate of its kind at the prison. Walla Union-Bulletin

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Pennsylvania Judge Sold Kids for Cash Documentary. That Judges can be corrupted is a flaw in the ideology of Law and Order, but this “Kids for Cash” concept opened a very nasty can of worms indeed. It exposed the corruption within the prisons, so desperate for “growth” that they will chase profits by whatever means…Set for release in February 2014, the film by Robert May will offer up a “scathing critique of America’s juvenile justice system.”  The documentary, titled Kids for Cash, aims to stir outrage and deep concern about the penal institutes, and the whole issue of privatization.The documentary, titled Kids for Cash, aims to stir outrage and deep concern about the penal institutes, and the whole issue of privatization. Guardian Express

Larry Summers: Privatizing Fannie, Freddie Is Ludicrous (video)…..“I think the idea that somehow the right thing to do is to privatize these institutions to a coalition of hedge funds who have bought up the stock at a very low price and expect to earn an inordinate return – the idea that that’s the right thing for public policy strikes me as being  at the edge of ludicrous. And is not something I would remotely support.” Bloomberg

To the Barricades! ALEC Posts Issues for 2014 Legislative Wars. The American Legislative Exchange Council—which has spent the last few years trying to subvert democracy—meets this week in Washington, D.C., to trot out its legislative agenda for next year. Note that this is the Koch brothers-backed group that creates “model legislation” for right-wing led states to adopt that undercuts some of the basic elements of broadly supported public programs, such as public schools.  Truthdig

We Know Who Stole the Economy—National People’s Action Moves to Take it Back…..For more than 40 years, corporate interests have been advancing that agenda through multiple pathways, including deregulation, privatization, redistribution of wealth through tax policy, strengthening corporate control of education, and packing courts with judges indoctrinated in free market ideology. YES! Magazine

MI: Fate of Detroit’s Art Hangs in the Balance. With a ruling by a federal judge on Tuesday that Detroit is eligible to enter bankruptcy, the fate of the city’s art collection – one of the finest in the country – now moves front and center in the legal battle over the city’s future….. Michael G. Bennett, an associate professor of law at Northeastern University School of Law, who was in the courtroom during the ruling, said, “Judge Rhodes seemed to be saying something that amounted to a defense of the collection.”A price tag on at least some of the pieces in the collection is expected soon. The city’s emergency manager, Kevyn D. Orr, hired the auction house Christie’s to appraise hundreds of selected pieces from the institute, and those estimated values are expected to be made public as part of the bankruptcy case by mid-December. New York Times           

NY: Levin pushes for moratorium on NYC charter schools. Charging that the city is facing skyrocketing costs for charter schools, Councilman Stephen Levin has introduced a resolution in the council calling on the Department of Education to place a moratorium on new charter schools. Under Levin’s plan, the Dept. of Education (DOE) would refrain from opening any new charter schools in New York City. The self-imposed moratorium would be in effect until the DOE produces a detailed report of how the funding levels for charter schools will grow over the next five years.  Brooklyn Daily Eagle

PA: AFSCME warming up to outsourcing of Pennsylvania Lottery’s management. The most vocal critic of Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed privatization of the Pennsylvania Lottery’s management may be backing off its opposition. The labor union that represents Pennsylvania Lottery employees is engaged in talks with Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration over a way to keep lottery employees on the state payroll under a private management agreement with Camelot Global Services.

PennLive.com

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Botched Healthcare.gov rollout energizes IT reform efforts. The failed rollout of Healthcare.gov has put a spotlight on federal information technology procurement reform and given renewed energy to reform proponents, according to members of Congress and outside experts.  Federal Times

Is privatizing prison health care costing more inmates’ lives? More than half of states have privatized prison health care to save money, but a new report concludes that for-profit care could be costing some inmates in Arizona their lives. In this excerpt from his report airing Monday, Adam May speaks with a mother who says negligent medical treatment behind bars could have killed her daughter. Al Jazeera America

Will Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Join Fannie, Freddie Privatization Effort? Now, five years after the U.S. Treasury’s bailout of both government sponsored mortgage giants, one wonders whether the Oracle of Omaha might be enticed by Fannie and Freddie privatization bids. TheStreet.com

AZ: DBA Press releases records obtained from the office of Arizona DBA. Press releases records obtained from the office of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer pertaining to private prison operators, private prison lobbyists. Key pieces of information contained in this records set include: ADC Director claimed knowledge of CCA’s role in driving prison privatization plan; CCA lobbyists work with the Governor’s Office and Legislature to shape the state budget, award contract; CCA lobbyist handpicked Governor’s judicial appointee. DBA Press

AZ: Courthouse privatization plan shelved. The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office has backed away from a plan to outsource courthouse security jobs to a private security firm, after weeks of negotiations among the office, county attorneys and the workers’ union, which claimed that the move violated a collective-bargaining agreement and state law….. But officials at the local branch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said that privatizing courthouse security was just an effort by the sheriff’s office to “test the waters” to see which public agencies it could privatize, part of what AFSCME said was a larger effort to outsource union jobs. ABQ Journal

VA: Roanoke wants ability to privatize management of on-street parking. The city of Roanoke has turned to private companies to manage its parking garages. Now, the city wants the ability to do the same for on-street parking….. State Senator John Edwards says he is wary of a plan that would give a private company the authority to issue parking tickets. He told members of city council he has serious concerns about privatizing law enforcement. “Any time people want to privatize prisons for example, privatizing any kind of law enforcement,” Edwards said, “it creates conflicts of interest for one thing. And you can’t delegate out law enforcement. It’s uniquely a government function.”  WDBJ7

MD: Intercounty Connector toll revenue falls short of early forecasts. Maryland officials have said repeatedly that traffic on the Intercounty Connector matches state projections, even as motorists say the controversial toll road continues to feel remarkably underused two years after it opened.  Washington Post

UT: Proposed Law Drops Measurements for Private/Homeschools, Creates Parent Bill of Rights. Over the past five months, Senator Aaron Osmond (Republican – South Jordan) has raised eyebrows with his plan to eliminate compulsory public education in the state of Utah….On Sunday, Osmond lifted the veil on the suite of legislation he is currently drafting to fundamentally change education policy in the Beehive state in a article he posted to UtahPolicy.com.  UtahPoliticalCapitol

VA: Walker: Will UVa become Virginia’s first PINO university? Pushed by the General Assembly’s long-standing underfunding of higher education, U.Va. has taken steps converting it to the commonwealth’s first PINO university — Public In Name Only. As elected officials duck financial responsibility and tuition soars to compensate, admission to U.Va. is increasingly limited to those who can pay, sons and daughters of the wealthy. Gentrification of higher education is a reality in the Old Dominion, and my alma mater — which once served students from all socio-economic strata — is now behaving like a private institution. Richmond Times Dispatch

NC: North Carolina’s DHHS wrongly feels no need to explain contracts. As The N&O’s Joseph Neff reported, it appears those contracts amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars haven’t really passed customary muster. Most departments in state government require a written explanation when a contract is signed with a private person.But a DHHS attorney says no “justification memos” have been found for a number of the deals. There’s just nothing there, and the attorney simply says the memos don’t exist. Further, the attorney says that because the personal services contracts were for the office of the secretary, no justification is required. But no policy or regulation exempting the secretary was produced. News & Observer

LA: Clinics set to open as part of hospital closing. Huey P. Long Medical Center has been a safety net for people in Central Louisiana who struggle to afford health insurance for more than 70 years. It’s transitioning into private management. The services provided there for so many years are moving to clinics and other hospitals.  MiamiHerald.com

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Private Toll Road Investors Shift Financial Risk to Taxpayers. Companies that build private toll roads are pressing states to assume more financial risk of traffic not meeting expectations, a change that benefits the operators while threatening to increase taxpayer costs. San Francisco Chronicle

Privatization and the Affordable Care Act. These policies of contracting out government work also help all administrations claim they were reducing the size of government. Even though as much money – or more – is spent, there are fewer civil servants on the payroll, and that was a good political message. So from Reagan, through Bush I, Bill Clinton and Bush II, contracting out was standard policy. For this reason, President Obama inherited a government, especially a Health and Human Services agency, with no internal IT expertise. When the Affordable Care Act required a quite complicated web site and interface with other parts of health care networks, it became time to write contracts. Truth-Out

The Privatization of Intelligence. If you think the prisons are being privatized, check out the secret services. Ever since Iran-Contra blew a window open on arms and drug smuggling, covert teams formerly run by the CIA started disappearing and reforming under new ownership. StevenHager420

IL: Is the Big Build-Up of Chicago’s Infrastructure Bank Justified? With former boss Bill Clinton by his side, Emanuel unveiled a concept known as the Chicago Infrastructure Trust (CIT) that promised to tap private money to improve highways, transit systems, bridges, sewers and other public capital assets. The message was clear: If the federal and state governments couldn’t or wouldn’t help, Chicago would help itself—or at least get assistance from friends in places like Citigroup and JPMorgan, who had pledged their support. “……Today it’s been more than a year and a half since the trust was created, and Emanuel has little to show for the program that some speculated would be his crowning achievement. The trust only last month approved its first deal. With so few tangible accomplishments so far, that raises a crucial question: Is Chicago’s program really one worth replicating?  Governing

NY: Watchdog: Private-public initiatives at crux of scandal. Navitech Services Corp., the main contractor on a pair of county projects at the center of an alleged bid-rigging scheme, may be the first local business that could feel financial pain from the scandal. It probably will not be the last. At stake in the case — in addition to the bottom line for a number of local businesses — is the safeguarding of millions of taxpayer dollars, the county’s public safety communications infrastructure, the county’s information technology systems, and perhaps the community’s overall business reputation. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

FL: Editorial: Slam the door on more prison privatization in Florida. Massive new prison privatization in Florida is dead for the moment, and it should stay dead.Post reporter Pat Beall proved that case way beyond any reasonable doubt in her five-part series “Private Prisons: Profits, Politics, Pain,” which concluded last Sunday. Ms. Beall used many pieces of evidence to make her case that the state’s roughly 2-decade-old experiment with private prisons has been good for the companies and lousy for Florida. She showed that putting the profit motive where it does not belong has led to wrongheaded sentencing policies (see editorial below) and not the much-promised savings.  Palm Beach Post

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NY: Bill de Blasio gives cold shoulder to education reformers. Charter school operators and Bloomberg-style education reformers are getting the cold shoulder from mayor-elect Bill de Blasio as he assembles his transition team and prepares to choose a chancellor. New York Daily News

WI: UW School of Education Dean highlights privatization of American education, issues with voucher schools. In light of the passage of the state budget this past June, which included $75 million additional funds for voucher and choice schools, University of Wisconsin School of Education Dean Julie Underwood addressed the increasing privatization of the American education system at a lecture Thursday…. Underwood said vouchers are harmful for the public school system because they turn education into a “mere private good” while still using money from the public system. “If you believe education is a public good, you are not likely to support vouchers,” Underwood said. UW Badger Herald

IN: 5 things to know about the ongoing legal battle over Indiana’s failed welfare privatization. A three-judge panel for the Indiana Court of Appeals heard arguments Monday in the ongoing legal battle between the state and IBM over the failed effort to privatize welfare. Former Gov. Mitch Daniels signed off on privatization in 2006, and IBM won the $1.4 billion contract, but the state canceled the contract in 2009 amid growing complaints from welfare recipients.  Daily Journal

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The Privatization of Public Service….It’s not only Maxwell that’s seen an increase in private sector employment among graduates, but a trend that has been consistent across multiple top public policy and administration graduate schools. [See below for a breakdown of post graduation jobs by university.] The trend mirrors the privatization of government overall and it’s happening at least partly as a result of the desire for greater compensation by for-profit firms, not because of well thought out social needs.  BillMoyers.com

White House Opposes Privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Privatization would not fix ‘too big to fail’ entities, official says. U.S. The Obama administration rejected a corporate bid to buy insurance businesses from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, suggesting housing finance reform would be a better way to rebuild the housing loan market and prevent another potential economic collapse. US News & World Report

IN: Indianapolis mounting push to privatize parks.IndyParks put out a request for proposals Friday that could lead to privatization of some or all of the city’s parks and recreation facilities…. “We’re going to move quickly where we can,” Pittman said. “But we want to get this right, and we’ll take the time needed to do that.” Indianapolis Business Journal

IN: Appeal arguments begin in Indiana vs. IBM. The Indiana Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments today in the legal battle over a $52 million judgment the state has been ordered to pay IBM over the failed attempt to privatize public welfare services under former Gov. Mitch Daniels. Both sides will get 45 minutes to argue their cases… The state is appealing a Marion Superior Court judge’s 2012 ruling awarding $52 million to IBM after the state canceled a contract Daniels had hailed in 2006 as the solution for fixing one of the nation’s most troubled welfare systems.  Indianapolis Star

PA:  Move to privatize Pa. prison nursing services fails. Critics of a plan by Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections to outsource the work of its nurses to private companies are breathing a sigh of relief. Pennsylvania’s state prisons already contract with private companies for certain medical, psychiatric, and pharmaceutical services. But the state’s biggest health care workers union is rejoicing over news that nurses won’t be added to that list.  NewsWorks

IL: Cost cutting, not love of free markets, push Illinois cities toward privatization. Illinois’ local governments are increasingly looking to privatization because they cannot afford to pay for everyone’s wants and still cover the cost of their needs. Quincy Journal

OH: State spent $1.2M on shuttered charter schools. The state of Ohio paid nearly $1.2 million to a string of charter schools — including three in Dayton and one in Trotwood — that closed abruptly last month mere weeks after opening.            Dayton Daily News ($)

 

 

 

 

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Drop in Traffic Takes Toll on Investors. Millions of motorists cross the Foley Beach Express toll bridge every year, many to hit Alabama’s beaches. But traffic never reached the 10 million drivers that the bridge’s investors were led to believe would be paying tolls in 2012. The result is a familiar scenario to global investors who wagered on U.S. toll roads in the years before the financial crisis—and have since seen many of those bets fail. Wall Street Journal

Breach of Contract: Prison Privatization in America. While the exclusion of felons from the electoral process that culminates in policies affecting them contradicts U.S. governmental philosophy, an even more glaring inconsistency emerges when felons’ inability to vote is coupled with the privatization of prisons.  Brown Political Review

IN: IBM, state in court Monday. The state is appealing a Marion Superior Court judge’s 2012 ruling awarding $52 million to IBM after the state canceled a contract Daniels had hailed in 2006 as the solution for fixing one of the nation’s worst welfare systems. Instead, the project ended with the state firing IBM in 2009 after hundreds of millions of dollars were spent for a system that generated widespread complaints of delayed benefits and impersonal interactions. The dispute ended up in court, with the state trying to recoup more than $150 million of the $437 million it had paid IBM before scrapping the deal and IBM asking for $113 million for breach of contract.   Indianapolis Star

CA: Orange County, long a toll-road supporter, makes U-turn over 405 plan. Some of Orange County’s toll roads have struggled to attract drivers and each of the major corridors has been forced to refinance its debt to avoid possible default. Los Angeles Times

TX: Toll roads across the San Antonio’s North Side? Terri Hall is with the San Antonio Toll Party. She’s outraged by an Alamo Regional Mobility Authority Proposal. It would put toll roads all across the North Side. ….”It’s not toll viable. When you’re using puiblic money to issue the debt it means they’re subsidizing it with all of our money,” said Hall….It doesn’t do much for unclogging roads either because so few people can afford to pay to use these extra lanes that you still sit in congested roads on the free lanes,” said Hall.  News4SanAntonio

NJ: Newark district and charter schools join together for universal enrollment plan. The Newark Public School district and the city’s charter schools are considering a plan that would blow up the status quo in what they say is an effort to provide equity to the city’s schoolchildren. School officials are creating what some say is a first-in-the-nation voluntary effort to offer universal enrollment for students citywide to all of Newark’s 71 public schools and 21 public charter schools.  NJ.com

MD: Tea party values threaten 185-year legacy of serving the poor in Fredrick…. Tea party-inspired county commissioners have voted to sell Montevue and an associated nursing home to a for-profit company. The new owner wouldn’t have to accept any more older residents who can’t afford assisted living and don’t have any place else to go.  Washington Post

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CMD Exposes America’s “Highest Paid Government Workers”. Hint: They aren’t your local teachers, nurses and social workers. The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) today launched “America’s Highest Paid Government Workers,” a new initiative that will expose the taxpayer-funded salaries of CEOs whose corporations make billions by taking control of public services. PRWatch

State Policy Network: The Straw That Stirs the Conservative Movement….In September, the Arlington, Virginia-based State Policy Network held its 21st annual meeting in Oklahoma City. According to CMD’s report EXPOSED: The State Policy Network — The Powerful Right-Wing Network Helping to Hijack State Politics and Government, the meeting “featured a legislative agenda that included privatizing and profitizing schools, attacking the pensions negotiated for public workers, limiting the ability of states to tax, ending collective bargaining rights of workers, cutting federal spending out of state budgets, and thwarting the Affordable Care Act.” As might be expected the Koch Brothers have their imprint writ large over the SPN.  Truth-Out

LA: DOJ gives up on blocking Louisiana voucher program. The Department of Justice said Tuesday it’s no longer trying to freeze or block Louisiana’s school voucher program, prompting a wave of Republican celebration. DOJ intervened earlier this year because it was concerned the vouchers were interfering with federal desegregation efforts in Louisiana. The suit became the target of Republican criticism, with accusations flying that the Obama administration was attempting to deprive children of a high-quality education.  Political

PA: GOP reps who killed Corbett transport plan push private funding. The morning after the General Assembly torpedoed Gov. Corbett’s latest attempt to pass a road and Septa public-funding budget and gas-tax hike, Republican members are circulating notes in support of “public private partnership” projects, in which private companies could petition state government to build or schools and other public projects and borrow, charge user fees or levy other financing on public-funded works without state involvement. The state passed a similar plan for roads and bridges last year. Philly.com (blog)

NJ: Privatizing cash toll collections is officially back on the table. Privatizing cash toll collections is officially back on the table, after New Jersey Turnpike Authority officials said they plan to put out requests for proposals this week to take over the E-ZPass and cash toll collections in 2016. Asbury Park Press

NY: Is New York’s Charter-School era waning?….De Blasio’s team told me that the mayor-elect doesn’t want to get rid of charter schools altogether. Rather, he plans to reverse many of the bolder changes that Bloomberg made, including closing more than a hundred and sixty low-performing public schools and stressing the use of report cards and data to rate teachers and schools. De Blasio’s most headline-grabbing proposal thus far has been to expand public education through a tax on New Yorkers who make more than five hundred thousand dollars a year, which would pay for citywide pre-kindergarten. The New Yorker

NY: Educators, parents challenge state education commissioner. It was clearly a difficult night for New York State Education Commissioner Dr. John King and Chancellor Meryl Tisch. The two sat alone at a table on the auditorium stage at Mineola High School on Nov. 13, listening as some 47 teachers, administrators and parents, many of them both school staff members and parents, spoke out about the state’s rollout of the Common Core State Standards. Not one of the 47 said they approved of the way the state has introduced the program to local school districts….“Public education is a large issue,” Dolber said. “There are problems with how the state is handling the Common Core rollout. There are problems with children with special needs that amounts to child abuse. Kids are important, and the state is trying to privatize education, to give it to the big corporations.” That contention was a common thread in many of the testimonials given by those who asked questions of King and Tisch. liherald.com

DC: DC preparing a new unified enrollment lottery for its traditional and charter schools. The majority of the District’s charter schools and all of the city’s traditional public schools plan to participate in a single, unified lottery to determine enrollment for next fall, a shift education officials hope will streamline what has often be en a frustrating and chaotic process for families.  Washington Post

NC: NC funding cuts for dementia care concerns families. Families dealing with Alzheimer’s disease, and the care providers they hire, are sweating over proposed cuts to state Medicaid payments for elder care…..Pat McCrory’s administration is working on a proposal to overhaul the system, potentially privatizing much of it, to save money. Greensboro News & Record

 

 

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How Privatizers Are Killing Our Schools. Heartland Institute President  Joseph Bast called the public school system a “socialist regime.”  Michelle Rhee cautions us against commending students for their ‘participation’ in sports and other activities. Privatizers believe that any form of working together as a community is anti-American. To them, individual achievement is all that matters. They’re now applying their winner-take-all profit motive to our children. AlterNet

Health-care Web site’s lead contractor employs executives from troubled IT company. The lead contractor on the dysfunctional Web site for the Affordable Care Act is filled with executives from a company that mishandled at least 20 other government IT projects, including a flawed effort to automate retirement benefits for millions of federal workers, documents and interviews show. Washington Post

Capital gains: Spending on contracts and lobbying propels a wave of new wealth in DC.….Two forces triggered the boom. The share of money the government spent on weapons and other  hardware shrank as service contracts nearly tripled in value. At the peak in 2010, companies based in Rep. James P. Moran’s congressional district in Northern Virginia reaped $43 billion in federal contracts — roughly as much as the state of Texas. At the same time, big companies realized that a few million spent shaping legislation could produce windfall profits. They nearly doubled the cash they poured into the capital.  Washington Post

Public universities should be free…..What we still call “public universities” would be more accurately described as state-controlled private universities — corporate entities that think and behave like businesses. Where there once was a public mission to educate the republic’s citizens, there is now the goal of satisfying the educational needs of the market, aided by PR departments that brand degrees as commodities and build consumer interest, always with an eye to the bottom line.  Al Jazeera America

OH: Ohio Court Of Appeals Blocks Red Light Camera Scam. Though many view red light cameras as a way for cities to extract money from the public, the Ohio Court of Appeals on Friday shut down what it saw as one man’s attempt to use the cameras to make money off of a city. A three-judge panel rejected Edward Verhovec’s demand for records about the traffic camera program operated on the city’s behalf by Redflex Traffic Systems, an Australian company. Verhovec had filed public information requests, working as an investigator for attorney Paul Cushion. TheNewspaper.com

OH: Taxpayers’ $1.2 million propped up owner’s 2nd charter-school bust. After resigning this year as superintendent of a financially troubled Internet charter school amid allegations of nepotism, James McCord had a new plan, and it again involved a charter school employing him and his family. Columbus Dispatch           

NC: The nightmare of privatized water resources continues. With help from Republicans, Aqua NC squeezes more money out of clients: The law allows private waterworks to adjust rates several times a year through a streamlined review to pay for water and sewer upgrades. BlueNC

TX: Toll tidal wave: Agency proposes tolls on all north side freeways …..The I-35 toll project is slated to be a public private partnership (P3) according to MPO documents. Privatization can mean toll rates of 75-80 cents a mile and all sorts of profit guarantees and public subsidies. Both public and privately-run toll projects involve non-compete agreements that penalize the expansion of free roads surrounding the toll lanes. San Antonio Express (blog)           

CA: Oakland charter school battle rages. Oakland is the charter school capital of California. And that might be a problem. …Depending on who’s talking, they’re filling the demands of parents for educational options or devastating an already cash-strapped school district. In reality, both are true. And that reality is setting up a battle between those wanting to open up even more charters and local critics, first among them school board member Jody London, who say the city doesn’t need and can’t support any more charters.  San Francisco Chronicle

NY: NYC hurries to close worst-performing charter school. City education officials are trying to close a troubled Brooklyn charter school before Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio takes office Jan. 1 and fulfills his campaign promise to impose a moratorium on school shutdowns. New York Daily News