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A Cautionary Tale on Privatizing Tax Collection…The power of tax collection should always be a power afforded to a government that’s answerable to We The People. It shouldn’t be a power that’s transferred to private corporations. But as The Washington Post brilliantly points out, that’s exactly what’s happened right here in our nation’s capital, in an experiment to privatize tax collection.  And not surprisingly, it’s an experiment that’s having disastrous effects. Just ask Bennie Coleman, a 76 year-old veteran who, thanks to D.C.’s tax lien privatization program, had his $197,000 house foreclosed and taken away from him, all because of a $134 property tax bill that hadn’t been paid. Truth-Out

Public Universities Ramp Up Aid for the Wealthy, Leaving the Poor Behind…It’s not just that colleges are continuously pushing up sticker prices. Public universities have also been shifting their aid, giving less to the poorest students and more to the wealthiest. A ProPublica analysis of new data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that from 1996 through 2012, public colleges and universities gave a declining portion of grants — as measured by both the number of grants and the dollar amounts — to students in the lowest quartile of family income. That trend has continued even though the recession hit those in lower income brackets the hardest.  ProPublica

IL: Perspective: An ordinance to protect city taxpayers… The Privatization Transparency and Accountability Ordinance will require a City Council committee hearing on any proposed public-private partnership to evaluate its full cost, weigh the benefits and determine whether the deal is in the best interest of the city. The ordinance also requires that any city department considering the privatization of any part of its operations must conduct a cost-effectiveness study, demonstrate greater than 10 percent projected cost savings, and show that the economic benefits of privatization outweigh the public’s interest in continued city operation of the service. We have learned from past privatization mistakes that transparency is the key to good decision-making and accountability is essential to good outcomes. The privatization ordinance will benefit taxpayers by requiring elected officials to undertake a thorough review process before attempts to outsource vital services or assets are put before the council for approval.  Chicago Tribune

NY: New York City Democrats embrace full speed reverse on education reform…. But advocates for traditional public education are jubilant that Bill de Blasio came out on top Tuesday in the Democratic mayoral race in New York City after a campaign in which he promised to yank support from charter schools, scale back high-stakes standardized testing and tax the wealthy to pay for universal preschool and more arts education. ….“De Blasio defined himself as the anti-Bloomberg, especially on education – anti-testing, anti-privatization and focused on listening to parents. Politico

MA: Charter schools dominate debate among mayoral candidates at Boston teachers union forum. Eleven mayoral candidates — many positioning themselves to be the next “education mayor” — ventured inside the Boston Teachers Union Hall Wednesday night where they pitched their ideas to overhaul the school system during a lively forum that at times put some candidates at odds with the city’s largest union.  Boston.com           

TX: Collin County Commissioners delay vote on privatizing pensions. After more than two hours of discussion, commissioners said they needed more information about the legality and financial risk of the idea. Called the “Employee Choice Plan,” the change would put a portion of retirees’ retirement savings into privately managed accounts, instead of placing it all in the Texas County and District Retirement System. Dallasnews.com

VA: U.Va. panel: Break state ties, operate more like a private school. A University of Virginia panel has proposed that the institution break many of its ties with the state government and operate more like a private school. Such an arrangement — which would need state lawmakers’ approval and likely would meet opposition — would allow Virginia’s flagship public school the freedom to more easily increase tuition and accept more top-tier students from across the country and the world. Although it could increase U.Va.’s prestige and shore up its finances, such a move could also make it more difficult for in-state students to win admission and could significantly raise their tuition.  Richmond Times Dispatch

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USDA privatizing meat inspections with program that allowed ‘chunks’ of feces. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is planning to roll out a meat inspection program nationwide that will allow pork plants to use their own inspectors, but it has a history of producing contaminated meat at American and foreign plants. The Washington Post reported on Monday that documents and interviews showed that a plan to allow hog plants to replace federal USDA inspectors with their own private employees had produced “serious lapses that included failing to remove fecal matter from meat” in three of the five plants that had participated in a pilot program for more than a decade.  Raw Story

Journal Explores Incentive For False Results In Lab Tests For DUI. A recent analysis published in the Criminal Justice Ethics academic journal suggests when technicians perform forensic analysis of blood and other evidence for cases such as drunk driving, the results can be influenced by built-in financial incentives to produce a conviction. Syracuse University Professor Roger Koppl joined Meghan Sacks from Fairleigh Dickinson University argue that even if false conviction rates are very low, a 3 percent error rate could put 33,000 innocent individuals behind bars every year.  The primary problem, according to the paper, is that fourteen states reward crime labs with a bonus for each conviction they generate. North Carolina pays a $600 bounty “upon conviction” to the law enforcement agency whose lab “tested for the presence of alcohol.” TheNewspaper.com

A sea of disabled placards in many cities….The Illinois Legislature passed a law that takes effect next year in which free-metered parking will be reserved for only the most severely disabled residents. It was spurred in part by Chicago’s decision to privatize its parking meters. As part of the deal, it agreed to reimburse the company for free parking provided to holders of disabled placards. The tab since 2009: $55 million.  Times-Standard

FL: Why Privatizing City Functions In West Palm Beach Is Raising Some Eyebrows. Leading the privatization effort was former CRA Director Kim Briesemeister. During her tenure as director, she simultaneously ran and co-owned a private firm called Redevelopment Management Associates (RMA) based in Broward County. RMA is the very same type of firm that West Palm Beach is seeking to hire, and indeed, RMA intends to submit a bid….. “It just looks slimy… [Privatizing the CRA] might be the right thing to do. Maybe it brings greater expertise to the city, maybe it brings lower costs, maybe it’s a good thing. But obviously there is at least an appearance of impropriety when she is suggesting, ‘let’s go to the private sector’ and, ‘oh by the way, I’m in the private sector,’” Jarvis said.   WLRN

IL: The tick-tock on Midway’s failed privatization …..Now that hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent to end up in roughly the same place, the Sun-Times said, it’s unlikely a Midway privatization deal will be reached before 2015. Chicago Business Journal

IL: Mayor Rahm Emanuel: Why I said ‘no’ to the Midway deal…. Some may ask why we would pursue any investment involving the private management of city assets, particularly in light of the parking meter fiasco. The answer is that Chicago is facing huge structural deficits and must explore any avenue that promises new sources of revenue without raising property or other taxes. The Midway partnership promised a source of revenue for badly needed infrastructure improvements, from schools to public transit. While this partnership did not work out, the process was not a waste of time.  Chicago Tribune

NY: Money troubles send county nursing homes into private hands…In recent years six New York counties have sold or closed their nursing homes, and as costs continue to rise, many others are considering privatization. North Country Public Radio

NC: NC could get 170 new charter schools in 2015. The number of charter schools has expanded sharply since legislators eliminated a 100-school cap in 2011. The 127 that are now open could serve as many as 65,000 students this year. The number of schools could grow to 153 next year; the State Board of Education gave preliminary approval last week for 26 charters to open in 2014. One of the questions will be how rigorously the state reviews new applications. News & Observer           

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IL: Chicago pulls plan to lease Midway Airport. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has decided not to move forward with plans to lease Chicago’s Midway International Airport, ending a bid to make it the first major U.S. hub to be brought under the management of private investors.  The remaining potential bidders failed to meet criteria the city set down to ensure taxpayers got a good deal, Emanuel spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton said.  Daily Journal

TN: When the Government Workspace Is Dirty and Dangerous…What Tennessee is doing about the issue, however, warrants some attention by public managers in other places. Under former general-services commissioner Steve Cates, the state merged two separate agencies, facility management and real-estate-asset management, into the Department of General Services, conducted a comprehensive analysis of the state’s real-estate portfolio, and hired an industry expert to provide comprehensive, integrated real-estate management services. The state essentially privatized the management of much of the its building operations. Governing

CA: California governor unveils privatization plan for prison overcrowding. California Governor Jerry Brown, facing a federal court order to ease overcrowding in the state’s prison system, proposed a $315 million plan Tuesday to expand inmate capacity by leasing space from county jails and other facilities. The announcement also comes during a hunger strike that erupted in multiple prisons across the state more than six weeks ago. The prisoners say they are protesting against solitary confinement, which they call inhumane. The Democratic governor, who was joined by Republican leaders of the state legislature in announcing the bill, said his proposal would reduce California’s prisons to 137.5 percent of capacity, as required by the court, and avoid the controversial early release of thousands of inmates.  Al Jazeera America

FL: Editorial: Private toll road a bad idea…If the need is there, then the state should build the new lanes even if they are toll lanes. But the state shouldn’t be in such a hurry to cede its toll-road authority to a private entity. The result could be an undesirable two-tiered transportation network serving more affluent commuters with private roads and forcing everyone else onto the underfunded public highway network.  Tampabay.com

FL: Stakes are high as dozens of new charter schools seek approval. With millions of dollars of taxpayer money at stake, Central Florida school boards will be considering the fates of nearly three dozen charter-school applications during the next few weeks. Orlando Sentinel

LA: Privatization … we’re selling our souls – opinion. There is a strange religious fervor in current efforts of public officials to sell off public hospitals, public schools, highways, prisons and Social Security funds. Looking after the sick, the children, the elderly, and the poor is now geared toward making a profit. Jesus would weep. The collective responsibilities we all share (public education, public health, even public defense) in a civilized society are being handed over to profiteers for a few pieces of silver. Even so-called non-profits make money or they couldn’t exist – they just don’t return profits to shareholders. Shreveport Times

 

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On Privatization’s Cutting Edge. Everyone, I suppose, dislikes parking meters. Chicagoans hate them even more. That’s because Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2008 struck a deal with the investment consortium Chicago Parking Meters LLC, or CPM, that included Morgan Stanley, Allianz Capital Partners and, yes, the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Abu Dhabi, to privatize our meters. The price of parking—and the intensity of enforcement—skyrocketed. The terms were negotiated in secret…Finally, in 2010, Forbes reported that in fact the city had been underpaid by a factor of ten.Well, Chicagoans, Tom Geoghegan is here to tell you that the whole damn thing is illegal under the Illinois Constitution—and most other constitutions, too. He’s in the middle of a suit to have the whole thing torn up. The argument is driven by the legal theory that “a seventy-five-year-agreement to run parking meters is an unconstitutional restriction on the police power—the sovereign right of the city to control its public streets and ways…. This is a very traditional, conservative, really, argument: what the City of Chicago did was not sell the meters. They sold the police power of the city.”  The Nation

Why charter schools need better oversight. Charter schools were designed to allow founders the freedom to design and run schools as they wish outside the traditional school system bureaucracy. Here’s a case for why some of that freedom needs to be reined in. Washington Post

IL: Emanuel halts Midway lease talks. After picking two finalists for a lucrative lease of Midway Airport, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration Thursday abruptly halted its efforts to take the transportation hub private. Emanuel spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton said one group vying for the deal dropped out “in the past day or two,” and the mayor decided not to proceed. Chicago Tribune

TX: How the GOP will lose Texas. Case in point, Governor Rick Perry’s push for a massive land-grabbing network of multi-modal NAFTA superhighways called the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC). It would have taken over 580,000 of private Texas farm and ranch land, some of it prime land that requires very little water to grow crops, and handed it over to a private, foreign toll operators in 50-year sweetheart deals known as public private partnerships (P3s). Just the first TTC corridor would have displaced one million Texans. The TTC wasn’t proposed to solve urban congestion, but to handle the influx of imports due to NAFTA and free trade in order to facilitate the free flow of people and goods across the Texas-Mexico border.  San Antonio Express           

PA: Hey, Gov. Corbett, it’s time to drop privatizing the Pa. Lottery. As reporter Jan Murphy noted, the Lottery last year had record sales of almost $3.7 billion and provided more than $1 billion to fund vital programs for senior citizens in every community in our Commonwealth. Despite the success, Gov. Tom Corbett continues to pursue a plan to turn this valuable asset over to Camelot Global LLC, a company based in the United Kingdom.  PennLive.com

PA: On tap: Liquor privatization, transportation and more is lined up. FINAL LAP? Will the state-owned liquor stores survive another legislative session? “I think folks are finally realizing that transportation funding, the safety of our roadways and bridges, has become conditioned upon the passing, or held hostage by the passage, of wine and spirits passing,” Costa said this week. “…In the House, where it seems everything hinges for now, the coalition-building continues. Watchdog. org

 

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Justification for Privatized Poultry Inspection Flawed, GAO Study Reveals. “The GAO saw through the euphemistically named ‘modernization’ proposal and confirmed our fears that FSIS does not have the scientific basis to justify privatizing poultry inspection,” said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. “Since 2008 we’ve known that the HIMP model jeopardizes food safety and this latest GAO report will hopefully serve as a wake-up call for the elimination for HIMP in order to protect consumers.” Food and Water Watch

The Case for Charter Schools and Vouchers, Decimated. In her new book, Reign of Error, Ravitch documents how public education’s antagonists have manufactured a crisis in order to advance their agenda. They deploy doom-and-gloom language to characterize the threat.  Slate Magazine

MI: Detroit Contemplates Privatizing Parking Assets. In his quest to leave no source of potential revenue unexplored, Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr is looking into selling Detroit’s parking lots, meters and garages. The experiences of other cities who’ve trodden a similar path offer cause for caution.  Planetizen

IN: Indiana’s appeal set in IBM welfare privatization case. 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. Indianapolis Star

FL: Could this be the end of prison privatization?… Well, probably not. But it’s at least a start. Citing the egregious abuses of corporations – like the GEO Group, which is headquartered in Florida – ColorOfChange and Grassroots Leadership launched a campaign today that aims to encourage investors to divest from the private prison behemoths. The campaign comes at an interesting time for Florida. Though the drumbeat toward mass privatization has been banging around for years, typically being cut off at the pass during the state’s legislative sessions, this year (following multiple legal challenges) the courts gave the state the green light to move forward with privatizing prison health care (at a cost of 2,000 employees).  Orlando Weekly

LA: Civil Service panel OKs LSU hospital privatization. Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration won approval Wednesday from the Civil Service Commission for the privatization of the LSU hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe, which will remove nearly 3,300 people from state employment rolls. The 4-1 commission vote was the final step needed for the Oct. 1 start date of the outsourcing contract and allows the university system to lay off 3,262 hospital workers at LSU Medical Center in Shreveport and the E.A. Conway Medical Center in Monroe. NOLA.com           

LA: Editorial: Transparency, accountability should be part of privatization efforts. Privatization is not a bad thing. The issue, though, is that government contracts worth millions of dollars are signed and legislators don’t get a chance to look at these contracts beforehand. And sometimes these contracted companies don’t deliver the goods and aren’t doing what they said they would do. American Press

LA: Gonzales residents concerned about privatization of EMS services. “I have not received one complaint about our ambulance service, about our EMS. It makes you wonder why on earth we would even bring this up,” Mayor Barney Arceneaux said. On Wednesday, Arceneaux received a letter signed by 42 senior citizens who stated they are happy with the current services. Alice Ducote, a senior citizen who lives in Gonzales, drafted the letter. She and others who have called on the fire department for medical help said they are concerned a private company will cost them. “For a senior on a fixed income that’s very important. That’s one of the key reasons why we would  like to keep it, besides fact their response time is very good,” Ducote said.  WBXH

PA: Corbett extends Pa. Lottery bid another 2 months. The extension is the eighth agreed to by the operator of British national lottery. Corbett, a Republican who is a proponent of privatizing government services, began searching for a private manager in early 2012 and chose the only bidder, Camelot, in January. San Francisco Chronicle

 

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PA: Charter operator owed its schools millions, but no one’s checking its books. The Philadelphia School District will spend a projected $729 million on charter schools in the coming fiscal year. But, if the past year at one charter operator is any indication, not all of those funds will actually go toward serving students. Philadelphia City Paper

FL: Interest rises in east-west toll road for Pasco. The DOT and Florida Turnpike Authority have partnered with the private sector to build toll roads in Orlando and Miami, but this would be the “first of its kind, privately funded, designed, built, operated and maintained elevated expressway” in the state. Tbo.com

LA: Privatization … we’re selling our souls – opinion. It could be argued that privatization increases the efficiency of an organization. But there’s no evidence for this. State-run healthcare systems in Germany and Australia provide some of the best public healthcare for the lowest cost. The for-profit charter school model is based on hiring teachers at the lowest possible wages, refusing to accept special needs children, and dumping kids with behavioral problems. In public schools, paying and advancing teachers in relation to how their students perform on standardized tests encourages cheating just as this type of pay scheme does on Wall Street. When did children, the sick and the elderly become profit centers? What kind of society allows the cost of an illness or caring for a disabled child to bankrupt a family, just so a profit can be made? Through privatization of the public good, what price have we put on our souls?  Shreveport Times

CA: Protesters leave Berkeley post office camp. Police dispersed a group of campers and cleared out their tents, tables, posters and a tree house at the Berkeley main post office Thursday morning, according to police and organizers of the month long protest against the sale of the building. San Jose Mercury News

 

 

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CA: Calif. Gov. Proposes Prison Expansion, Privatization To Avoid Prisoner Early Release. California’s prison situation has been dire for a long time. In the wake of mismanagement, years of overcrowding, and a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring that California’s prisoner housing circumstances lead to “needless suffering and death,” the state has been under pressure to either offer early release to thousands of California prisoners or come up with another solution. Last night, Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown opted for the latter. In These Times

IA: Iowa won’t privatize state fiber-optic network. Gov. Terry Branstad says the state will reject bids for the Iowa Communications Network. Branstad says today that the bids for the statewide fiber-optic network do not reflect the value of the system. Both bids came from the West Des Moines-based Iowa Network Services. The network provides phone, video, data and internet services to schools, hospitals, libraries and government agencies across the state. It is currently an independent agency within the state government.  Dubuque Telegraph Herald

PA: Corbett extends Pa. Lottery bid another 2 months.The extension is the eighth agreed to by the operator of British national lottery. Corbett, a Republican who is a proponent of privatizing government services, began searching for a private manager in early 2012 and chose the only bidder, Camelot, in January. But state Attorney General Kathleen Kane rejected the proposed contract with Camelot in February. Kane said state law did not allow the governor to privatize lottery management or sanction the expansion of gambling the contract would permit. Her office also concluded that a management fee that Camelot can claim was unconstitutional. Miami Herald

Ways Privatization Failed America – Part 2. Paul Buchheit. Regulation is meant to protect all of us, but anti-government activists have worked hard to turn us against our own best interests. Truth-Out

The NYT Is Asking the Wrong Question About Rapid Turnover at Charter Schools. Motoko Rich has a very interesting piece in the New York Times about the rapid turnover at charter schools compared with traditional public schools, where the average teacher has about 14 years of experience as opposed to the two to five years you’ll find at charter schools. But I think she frames this information around the wrong question. Rich is asking, basically, whether it’s good for kids to have so much turnover. And I think the answer is obviously: No, it isn’t.  Slate Magazine

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Private lobbyists get public pensions in 20 states. He’s among hundreds of lobbyists in at least 20 states who get public pensions because they represent associations of counties, cities and school boards, an Associated Press review found. Legislatures granted them access decades ago on the premise that they serve governments and the public. In many cases, such access also includes state health care benefits. But several states have started to question whether these organizations should qualify for such benefits, since they are private entities in most respects: They face no public oversight of their activities, can pay their top executives private-sector salaries and sometimes lobby for positions in conflict with taxpayers.   Boston.com

Profit, prison, and privatization. Lawmakers first embraced outsourcing to private correctional facilities as a cost-cutting option. These companies inherently value profit over the welfare and rehabilitation of the people in their custody.  The more bunks filled, the more money they make.  The resulting maltreatment and recidivism has long term costs for the health of our communities, whose tax money is paying for this broken system. MinnPost.com (blog)

OH: New state report card proves Ohio’s charter school experiment has failed. After 15 years of charter school expansion, the new Ohio school report cards provide the strongest evidence yet that this method of using charter schools to supposedly reform education in our state is a complete failure.  The latest results from the state make it clear that the large urban districts are not dramatically improving and the charter schools that are supposed to be transforming educational practices while being given every advantage (including a greater amount of state funding) are doing no better.  Plunderbund

IL: Alderman Worried About Fallout From Possible Midway Airport Privatization. Opponents of privatizing Midway approached Zalewski about instances of possible union-busting and black-listing of workers by one of the finalists for the Midway lease, Spanish firm Ferrovial. Chicagoist

FL: Proposal envisions Pasco toll road, with some elevated lanes. A development company called International Infrastructure Partners LLC has proposed building a privately run toll road, some of which would be elevated, across south Pasco from U.S. 19 to Interstate 75 and then east to U.S. 301 in Zephyrhills. The privately constructed and operated toll road would be the first in Florida. TampaBay.com

PA: CDC opposes liquor store privatization in PA. The CDC claims that when the free market sells alcohol, more alcohol becomes available at cheaper prices. That, the CDC says, leads to  illegal sales to minors. Crunching number from multiple studies on privatization efforts of the 70s and 80s, the study cites a 44 percent median increase in per capita alcohol sales post-privatization.  Pennsylvania Independent

 

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CA: Jerry Brown Considers Prison Alliance Between Private Company, Union. Under the plan …. the for-profit prison giant Corrections Corporation of America would lease one or more of its prisons to the state, which would in turn use California prison guards and other public employees to staff the company’s facilities. By transferring state prisoners to these privately owned structures, the state would have enough space to comply with an order by a panel of federal judges in 2009 that said overcrowded state prisons were jeopardizing the health and safety of inmates…Critics of Brown’s proposal include prison reform advocates and champions of the state’s beleaguered social safety net programs, who may lose funding as state payments for the prison expansion rise. The governor’s proposals, which also include sending California inmates to out-of-state prisons and county jails, could cost the state $300 million to $800 million each year, by various estimates. Huffington Post

KY: Kentucky Republicans seizing on charter school issue. Republicans in Kentucky are pressing the state to allow charter schools, saying state policy on the issue could determine whether the next generation succeeds. Any future Kentucky governor who ignores education, and the benefits that many think charter schools would bring, would be holding the state back, said former Louisville Metro Council member Hal Heiner, who is considering a run for governor in 2015. The Courier-Journal

MN: County moves ahead with privatization of mental health services. Goodhue County will seek proposals from third parties to privatize the Mental Health Center and related services. HHS Board members reiterated a need for caution in the RFP process, and that the board should give prospective candidates enough time to research the mental health needs in the county before responding. Republican Eagle

VA: Op-Ed: Why Too High Greenway Tolls Violate State Statute. The toll rates on the 14-mile road between Dulles Airport and Leesburg are among the most expensive in the world. The Greenway was built in the late 1990s by a public-private partnership, with $144.2 million of equity invested. In 2005, the holding company that operates the Greenway, TRIP II, was sold by the original ownership consortium to the Australian investment bank, Macquarie.  Evidence shows that the high level of Greenway tolls violates Virginia statute and embodies the failure of collaboration between the public and private sectors on this project. Leesburg Today

IL: City commission to decide fate of shuttered Chicago public schools. Mayor Rahm Emanuel is appointing an advisory committee to decide what to do with nearly 50 shuttered Chicago Public Schools that residents fear could be turned into charter schools or sit vacant and become magnets for crime…. As for the charter theory, Milhouse said, “I can’t say that, if that community says they want to make it a charter school that we would say no. That hasn’t been given to me as a parameter to stop any community from turning it into a charter school.” Several of the 13 panel members — who will not be paid for their service — have ties to Emanuel and to former Mayor Richard M. Daley. Chicago Sun-Times

NY: Privatization threatens New York City’s public housing system….To climb out of its fiscal hole, NYCHA proposed a sweeping land lease plan earlier this year. This initiative would effectively allow for the construction of luxury high rises on public-housing properties that have been historically occupied by the city’s poor. According to recently released design plans, this “infill development” would saddle eight NYCHA projects with new privately run developments. The city emphasizes that while a lease would typically last 99 years, it would technically not amount to a sale of NYCHA land—a distinction critics write off as mere political semantics.  In These Times

 

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MI: Governor to Free Pontiac, Mich., from Emergency Financial Management. Gov. Rick Snyder announced Monday that the financial emergency in Pontiac was over and that the city no longer needed to be run by an emergency manager….. Under Schimmel’s leadership, city expenses were slashed, the city’s police and fire services have been contracted out and golf courses have been sold. Effective Monday, the city’s mayor and council were to assume their former roles.  Governing

TX: State report finds Houston charter school misspent $5.3 million in federal funds. A Houston charter school misspent $5.3 million in federal funds on items ranging from first-class airline tickets to spa services, according to a state report released Tuesday. Dallas Morning News

IL: Alderman: If Midway privatization plan flies, neighbors could be hurt. An influential alderman raised red flags Wednesday about the privatization of Midway Airport, spelling political trouble for Mayor Rahm Emanuel if the project is cleared for takeoff. Aviation Committee Chairman Michael Zalewski (23rd), whose ward includes Midway, said he’s concerned that a private contractor would attempt to shoehorn more late-night flights into the airport. hat could make life miserable for noise-weary Southwest Side residents, particularly those whose homes don’t qualify for soundproofing at city expense.  Chicago Sun-Times

FL: Lawmakers discuss spike in child deaths. DCF has struggled to oversee its contractors since Florida became the first state to fully privatize its child welfare programs in 2005, inking multimillion-dollar contracts with 20 child welfare contractors that care for the more than 17,000 foster children in the system. Wilkins attempted to add more penalties for poor performance to the contracts, but the contractors pushed back, saying he was overstepping his role. “The (contractors) have taken over without anybody managing them and so the department is doing its job in the dark,” Talenfeld said. “The only way this privatized system can work is if somebody is in charge.” Most advocates agreed the privatized system has produced better outcomes, but some suggested an ombudsmen or independent monitor. OCALA.com