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For-profit colleges face heat again on Hill.  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Holly Petraeus goes on the attack, saying a federal rule encourages for-profit colleges to exploit veterans…..Petraeus will say the rule gives “some for-profit colleges an incentive to see service members as nothing more than dollar signs in uniform and to use some very unscrupulous marketing techniques.” Politico (blog)

Air Force considers privatizing Cape operations. The Air Force is studying the possibility of transforming Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and the Eastern Range into a commercially operated spaceport. FLORIDA TODAY

MI: Detroit’s assets are under review amid crushing debt. Kevyn Orr is Detroit’s state-appointed emergency manager….Last Friday, Orr took questions from reporters. The very first question he faced was pretty much, ”What’s for sale?” “Right now there’s nothing for sale, including Howdy Doody.” Orr was actually referring to the Detroit Institute of Arts, whose collection includes the original puppet from the 1950s children’s TV show. Though no one knows for sure, the DIA’s total assets — which include masterpieces by Van Gogh and Picasso — could be worth about $2.5 billion. John Pottow is a professor and bankruptcy expert at the University of Michigan. He says parts of the museum’s collection could potentially be liquidated and sold off to the highest bidder — at least, in theory.  Michigan Radio

IL: Emanuel backs independent budget office to analyze spending. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has thrown his support behind a plan to create a $250,000-a-year independent budget office that would help the City Council analyze the mayor’s spending and privatization plans and suggest budget-balancing alternatives….. “There’s a high number of really high-profile public- private partnerships the city is looking at. We’re talking about Midway Airport and the Port Authority. We’ll probably be talking about garbage and water [at some point]. There’s no way you can run a full office that has these duties for 250,000. I don’t even know if it would last one deal,” Miller said. “I heard from several aldermen that they were really unsure of what direction to go when discussing the new parking meter deal [revised by Emanuel]. They felt something like this would be useful. But to have an office that is supposed to run on $250,000 is laughable.” Chicago Sun Times

NC: Public Education, Private Profit? North Carolina Set To Expand Controversial Voucher Program. North Carolina state legislators are expected to vote this week on a historic $20.6 billion budget that would further privatize the state’s education programs, expanding a voucher program that  allows families to use taxpayer money to pay private-school tuition. MintPressNews

AZ: Tucson-area districts increasingly move to convert schools to charters. Arizona has seen an unprecedented surge in school districts wanting to convert some of their schools to charters, raising concerns over whether districts are unfairly using the law just to generate more money. Arizona Daily Star           

 

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OH: Prison oversight – editorial. Gov. John Kasich and state lawmakers are pushing a plan to privatize more prison operations — a risky move that will demand far greater oversight by the administration, legislators, and citizens. Ohio has hired a private vendor to start feeding its 50,000 prisoners. That company’s track record includes billing for food it doesn’t serve, using substandard ingredients, and even creating disturbances because of its meals. Toledo Blade

MI: Is Detroit’s Bankruptcy Really a Feeding Frenzy for Privatization? Frank Hammer is a retired GM employee and former President and Chairman of Local 909 in Warren, Michigan….. There have been a lot of conversations under the emergency manager, and certainly now under bankruptcy, about all the city assets that can be put up in a fire sale to help the city, supposedly to help the city pay off their debts. So they’re talking about, for example, selling what’s a very cherished public park in the middle of the Detroit River called the Belle Isle. They’re talking about selling that. They’re talking about selling the art collection that’s housed [incompr.] Detroit Institute of Art, which is apparently worth millions, and so that they’re going to just have a feeding frenzy privatizing what previously were understood to be public assets. And that’s partly what I see coming down the pipe.  TheRealNews.com

IL: Private Colorado-based firm to run Port of Chicago. A Colorado company has been awarded a 62-year lease to run the Port of Chicago and will make major infrastructure upgrades that will modernize the rundown facilities, city and Illinois state officials said…..Other privatization efforts in Chicago have been controversial. The city’s aldermen faced much criticism for hastily approving a 75-year deal in 2008 under former Mayor Richard Daley that made Chicago’s parking rates among the most expensive nationwide. Emanuel, who acknowledged the parking deal became a national embarrassment, recently pushed for free parking on Sundays as a concession.With the port deal, Emanuel emphasized that officials conducted a competitive bidding process. The Broe Group is a family-owned international investment and management company. Kansas City Star

IL: Mammogram Clinics Lose Funding. The city of Chicago has more plans to privatize public health services after losing a grant that helped to pay for thousands of mammograms for the uninsured.  Free mammography screenings were paid for, in part, by a federal grant administered by the state of Illinois.  CLTV

DC: Metro union aims to block DC plan to privatize buses. Metro’s biggest union is trying to rally support from pro-union groups and local community organizations to stop the District from privatizing some of its bus routes now run by the transit agency. Washington Post

LA: State employee layoffs rise. About 3,800 rank-and-file state employees lost their jobs during the fiscal year that ended June 30 as state government’s workforce continued to shrink, according to a state Civil Service report issued Thursday. The layoffs affected nearly 10 percent of the state’s classified employees during the 2013 fiscal year. Most of the civil servants lost their state jobs when the Jindal administration privatized operation of LSU hospitals in south Louisiana. The Advocate

CO: The impacts of privatizing the turnpike. A few months ago, the Colorado Department of Transportation reached a 50-year deal with a private consortium to handle the improvement, maintenance and operation of U.S. 36…. Phineas Baxandall, a senior analyst for tax and budget policy with PIRG and author of the report, considers the U.S. 36 plan a “mixed bag.” “There are a lot of positive things about this project,” he said, “but the private financing is essentially just a high-priced loan. Instead of raising more of their own public revenue to finance the road, the state will make larger annual payments to the private road builders.” Boulder Weekly

PA: Heard off the Street: Pennsylvania’s beer distributors cool to privatizing. While lawmakers consider changing the maligned, misunderstood system, few harbor illusions privatization will change how much people drink. Pittsburgh Post Gazette

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Man Who Worked On Parking Meter Deal Writes NYT Blog Praising Privatization. A post on The New York Times DealBook blog arguing in favor of cities embarking on privatization projects failed to mention the author works for a firm that was instrumental in drafting Chicago’s parking meter deal. Chicagoist

Privatization of weather and climate data: What could possibly go wrong? The now-familiar scenario where government agency is strangled by budget cuts until it’s forced to look to private industry to continue its mission. And so private industry is stepping into the void, with companies such as Skybox Imaging with its mini-fridge sized satellite, so much more flexible and easier to launch. Daily Kos

‘Stand Your Ground’ group pushes privatization of public education. The group that pushed “Stand Your Ground” laws in Florida and other states has been mighty busy working to get laws passed in the area of school reform — and the aim has been the privatization of public education. Washington Post

Education Laws Written By For-Profit Schools Considered In 43 States. School privatization laws crafted by corporate interests have been introduced in nearly every state in the first half of 2013, according to the Center for Media and Democracy. 43 states and the District of Columbia are considering school legislation developed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the umbrella organization that pushes state laws catered to business interests on a myriad of topics. ThinkProgress

Privatizing War (cont.) From Tuesday’s list of Pentagon contract announcements: Jorge Scientific Corp., Arlington, Va., was awarded an $11,810,908 modification (P00006) to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee, option-filled, multi-year contract (W560MY-13-C-0004) to provide counterinsurgency advisory and assistance teams services throughout Afghanistan.  The cumulative total face value of this contract is $21,262,084. …This concern, we have noted in the past, has been paid tens of millions of dollars to plan and fight the war in Afghanistan.  Don’t we have military folks to do that? TIME

CT: Sale of Bethel’s Water System Would be a “Tax Through the Tap”. Not only would the privatization mean much higher water rates for town residents in the future, it would also take the drinking water system out of local public control. Food and Water Watch

 

 

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The Charter School Vs. Public School Debate Continues. Charter schools turn 21 this year. In that time, these privately run, publicly funded schools have spread to 41 states and enrolled more than 2 million students. But one key question lingers: Do kids in charter schools learn more than kids in traditional public schools? NPR

Air Force Considers Privatizing Cape Canaveral Operations. Meetings this week will explore a major change to that historic role, studying the possibility of privatizing some or all operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and the Eastern Range, “the nation’s premier gateway to space.” SpaceNews

NY: Fraud Lawsuit Proceeds Against Toll Road Firm. Justice Melvin L. Schweitzer A New York state court decided last Wednesday that a financial guaranty insurance company could sue a toll road company for fraud over a scheme to buy public infrastructure assets at hefty premiums. TheNewspaper.com

IL: Proposed Bill Paves Way for Water Privatization Boom in Illinois. Legislation currently on Governor Quinn’s desk could dramatically alter the way Illinois manages its own water resources. House Bill 1379 would allow Illinois American Water and Aqua Illinois, two of the state’s largest private water companies, to expedite acquisitions of municipal water systems and increase customer rates to fund their expansion….Critics of the proposed legislation insist water and sewage privatization is a dangerous gamble with an essential public resource that will cost Illinois residents. Non-profit water advocacy group Food and Water Watch explains that multinational water corporations are beholden to stockholders, not the public they serve, which inevitably limits transparency and public accountability.  Gapers Block

MI: What would happen if we consolidate schools into county-wide districts? State Superintendent of Schools Mike Flanagan….  is proposing either going to a system of county-wide districts, or, if that won’t fly, at least consolidating and centralizing administrative and some academic functions at either a county or a regional level…. Scott Warrow is both a Groves English teacher…thinks this is just another ploy by the governor and the legislature to eventually privatize education. “What has been going on is an attack on public teachers and their unions,” he told me. He thinks the public schools would be fine if the state would just give them all the money they have cut over the past decade or so. Michigan Radio

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Past audits show Aramark charged states for unserved prison meals. A private vendor in line to begin feeding roughly 100,000 prison inmates in Ohio and Michigan has a track record of billing for food it doesn’t serve, using substandard ingredients and riling prisoners with its meal offerings, past audits in several states show. The Republic

Teach For America alumni organize ‘resistance’. The summit, billed as “Organizing Resistance Against Teach for America and its Role in Privatization,” is being organized by a committee of scholars, parents, activists, and current corps members. Its mission is to challenge the organization’s centrality in the corporate-backed, market-driven, testing-oriented movement in urban education.  American Prospect

Noam Chomsky lectures on continued corporatization of universities. “If you want to privatize something and destroy it, it’s simple,” Chomsky said. “First you defund it so it doesn’t work anymore.” Chomsky said the increase of private higher education, and those institutions with similar practices, edged out the demand in the market for public higher education, which could halt tuition hikes in favor of more modest spending practices instead of spending more to compete with other public institutions. He said soon the only colleges in the United States that could realistically be called publicly funded were community colleges. The Michigan Daily

Cities and States Should Learn From Edward Snowden. Unfortunately for taxpayers, not only has outsourcing these services and privatizing public infrastructure to for-profit companies failed to keep this promise, but too often it undermines transparency, and public accountability. In fact, the fine print in these contracts often gives government contractors the power to make public decisions and guarantees profits even when it conflicts with public purpose. Huffington Post

PA: Analysts hold little hope for liquor, transit bills. Linking a bill to raise money for transportation to one that would privatize liquor sales was supposed to be the key to their passage in the General Assembly. Instead, the strategy doomed both proposals, analysts and lawmakers say. The Tribune-Review

WI: Local husband and wife fight school choice vouchers. Last month, Warner introduced a School Board resolution — approved by the full board on Monday — that opposes the expansion of vouchers in Wisconsin. Meanwhile Schroder, who is one of the teachers who went months without promised pay or benefits while working for Racine’s now-closed St. John Fisher Academy voucher high school, has founded a Facebook group called “Stop The Decimation of Public Education — Eliminate Vouchers!” It has 94 members and encourages people to contact their legislators about opposing vouchers. Journal Times

NC: NC Justice Center questions development privatization efforts. A liberal-leaning advocate believes N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory’s efforts to privatize economic development in the state needs some tweaking before it becomes law. A report from the N.C. Justice Center says one missing element stands out — companies that contribute to the N.C. Partnership for Prosperity should be barred from receiving state incentives. Charlotte Business Journal (blog)

 

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 Gangs Ruled Youth Prison as For-Profit Model Left Blood on Floor. More than 130,000 state and federal convicts throughout the U.S. — 8 percent of the total — now live in private prisons such as Walnut Grove, as public officials buy into claims that the institutions can deliver profits while preparing inmates for life after release, saving tax dollars and creating jobs. No national data tracks whether the facilities are run as well as public ones, and private-prison lobbyists for years have successfully fought efforts to bring them under federal open-records law. Yet regulatory, court and state records show that the industry has repeatedly experienced the kind of staffing shortages and worker turnover that helped produce years of chaos at Walnut Grove. Businessweek

House GOP Offers Housing Bill Without Government Guarantee. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling introduced a housing finance reorganization bill today that would liquidate U.S.-owned mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and limit government mortgage guarantees. The proposed legislation, seen as a Republican counterproposal to a bipartisan bill unveiled June 26 in the Senate, is unlikely to gain support in the Democratic-led Senate and has yet to attract broad support among House Republicans.  Bloomberg

Edward Snowden and the disaster of privatization – Donald Cohen. Snowden’s leaks exposed a widespread lack of oversight of the contractors working at every level of our government; outsourcing can be nearly as damaging at the state and local levels as it is for federal contracts. The same lack of transparency, accountability and oversight threatening our national security threatens public services provided each day across the country. Cash-strapped mayors and governors are handing over control of critical public services and assets to for-profit corporations and Wall Street investment banks that promise to handle them better, faster and cheaper. Too often, such deals entirely undermine transparency, accountability, shared prosperity and competition — the very underpinnings of democracy. Reuters Blogs (blog)

NC: Public private partnership bill hits Senate snag. A plan to turn North Carolina’s job recruitment functions over to a public private partnership appears to have hit a snag in the state Senate, where skeptical lawmakers say they want to “thoroughly examine” the ideas behind one of Gov. Pat McCrory’s key priorities. McCrory, a Republican, has been pushing the legislature to create a private nonprofit that would contract with the state to handle everything from tourism promotion to the recruitment of new businesses.  WRAL Tech Wire

FL: Miami-Dade probes cheating allegations at district-run charter. Miami-Dade schools police are investigating cheating allegations at a district managed charter school overseen by a former senior district official. Miami Herald

 

 

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Privatization’s the Name of the Game for Accident-Prone Train Company Behind Lac-Mégantic Oil Disaster. As the head of the company behind the runaway oil train that derailed and caused a fireball explosion in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec faced furious residents on Wednesday, he continued to defend the shoddy safety record of his company hell-bent on privatization…. The Canadian Press, citing information from the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration, reports that the MM&A has had 8 derailments and four collisions since 2010, and it has an average of 34.7 accidents per million miles traveled, well above the national average of 2.3 accidents per million miles.  The Wall Street Journal adds that the company had “23 accidents, injuries or reportable mishaps from 2010 to 2012.”  Common Dreams

Postal Service needs centralized system to manage public-private partnerships. The U.S. Postal Service has been broadening its use of public-private partnerships in recent years. But to fully leverage its relationship with the private sector, the agency could take a page from foreign post offices, according to postal auditors. While the service is making progress on partnering with the private sector, the USPS still lacks a central office to deal with the logistics of sharing lessons learned, said Michael Kubayanda, a public policy specialist at the USPS Office of the Inspector General on In Depth with Francis Rose Monday.  FederalNewsRadio.com

Privatizing Privatization. Smokey Diamond, our intrepid reporter, has had her nose to the grindstone in sniffing out not only today’s news, but tomorrow’s.  She reports that the thought keeping the two major Republican think tanks awake at night is the slow pace of privatization.  Both the ultra-conservative IGM group and the ultra, way past-conservative WGOs group had thought that most government services would have withered away by now, leaving the only government functions the fighting of wars in nations whose names we cannot spell and the occasional photo shoot of an uncomfortable looking John Boehner and a satanic looking Eric Cantor cutting the funds for some program or other that the young or sick depend on.  Not so. Voices of Central Pennsylvania

IL: Has privatizing Chicago public housing done much to desegregate it? The Chicago Reporter found that more than 97 percent of the voucher spending remains in Chicago. We mapped out where those rent dollars were spent between 2006 and 2011 and found that few trickled into the so-called “opportunity areas.” Most went to help house people in highly-segregated parts of the city’s South and West Sides where schools are struggling and jobs are hard to come by. ChicagoNow (blog).

CA: Feds search Oakland charter school in criminal investigation. The FBI and IRS have opened a criminal investigation into a charter school whose former director allegedly funneled $3.8 million from the school to companies he owns for construction and classroom rental spaces. San Jose Mercury News

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Pension Proposal Aims to Ease Burden on States and Cities. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has devised a way for states and cities to exit the pension business while still giving public workers the type of benefits they want. It involves a tax-law change that would enable governments to turn their pension plans over to life insurers. Big players like MetLife and Prudential, to cite just two, might thus step into shoes now occupied by the likes of Calpers, California’s giant state pension system.  New York Times

Privatize Schools Why It’s Crony Capitalism At Its Worst. Late economist Milton Friedman was among the early advocates of vouchers, but people forget he emphasized vouchers “must be universal, available to all parents, and large enough to cover the costs of a high-quality education.” Voucher policies in real life fall short of any of these criteria. Secondly, when private entities running schools are driven solely by profit, especially when big private equity firms are involved, the education they provide may not be the best for students. Education is not a consumer good. When buying a household item, one expects full information about this item to process in his head to make an informed decision. Education, on the other hand, is supposed to lift someone from ignorance and give him or her the very skills to process information. Lastly, when parents and the community do not adequately watch how schools entrusted to private entities are doing, fraud and abuses are bound to emerge from the schools.  PolicyMic.

NJ: Christie Vetoes Bill That Would Check His Power to Privatize. The bill would have required that a contract for the privatization of public services not be entered into without cost analyses demonstrating actual savings for the public agency and taxpayers, without increased fees or other charges to the public, reduced quantity or quality of services, or lowered workforce standards, including reduced staff qualifications and pay. The bill would have constricted the governor’s power to choose when to privatize, which he has now, as evidenced by the lottery bill. NJ Spotlight

IL: Chicago Infrastructure Bank Gets Slow Start. When Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the Chicago Infrastructure Trust, he billed it as “the breakout strategy for the city of Chicago,” a nonprofit agency that’s supposed to lure private investment for public projects the city could not afford. More than a year later, however, the organization has yet to break ground on any ventures. Its first initiative, to make city buildings and schools more energy-efficient, is behind schedule. Governing

CA: Treasurer’s Office Report Says Default Is Likely if Road Tolls Aren’t Extended 13 Years. The report, by Montague DeRose and Associates, listed three reasons why the state should care about the debt restructure. First, the public/private venture will pay between $14.1 million and $18.9 million to the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) between 2041 and 2053. Second, a default would look bad to investors and make it tougher for the state to raise money in capital markets. And, third, it is in the public interest that the tolling end and the roads become part of the state freeway system. The report mentioned, but did not note, the irony that restructuring will delay that day by 13 years and break a promise to voters who originally voted for the toll road plan.  AllGov.com

CA: If You Want To Privatize BART, You Can Probably Afford Something Else. These services aren’t intended to be used only by those who can afford it; these are basic necessities that everyone needs, and for those who depend on them, privatization is a dismantling of their support systems and crushes the possibility of aspiring to a middle-class life. Every attempt to privatize government services will be met with this split. Just because markets are efficient, assuming they are, it does not mean they’re equitable, and it’s the lack of sensitivity to this point that dominates the entire narrative of the industry’s techno-libertarian idealism…. It’s all a ruse; if you think government services are ready to be upended by privatization, you probably don’t rely on those public services to exist. International Business Times

OK: Governor establishes task force to consider privatizing, splitting Dam Authority. That order, issued July 8, develops a 15-member task force charged to examine the inner workings of the non-appropriated state agency, tasked to generate, transmit and sell electricity to Oklahoma municipalities, electric cooperatives and industrial customers, as well as off-system customers across a four-state region. Additionally, GRDA manages more than 70,000 surface acres of water in northeast Oklahoma, including Grand Lake and Lake Hudson. It has at least 500 state employees. Miami News Record

UT: Will privatizing Medicaid’s dental program hurt Utah kids? “We feel like privatizing introduces an entirely new challenge and hurdles for the children to receive their dental care,” said Horgesheimer, president of the Utah Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, which represents 85 pediatric dentists statewide. Salt Lake Tribune

VA: Should Virginia Sell Air Rights Over the Dulles Toll Road? “Dulles toll road users are on the hook for over $2 billion to pay for metro to Dulles,” Herrity said. “Proceeds from air rights could go a long way to reduce the projected burden on toll road users and protect the health of this critical economic corridor. Patch.com           

 

 

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TX: Commentary: Rick Perry’s announcement marks ‘the end of an error’. Under Perry, anything corporations could do better than state business, well, that got privatized too. The only problem is that Perry’s privatization has usually blown up in his face. In 2003, Perry replaced 2,900 state workers with private call centers that were going to make it easier for Texans to apply for food stamps, Medicaid and children’s health insurance. Not only did it make it harder for poor Texans to get help, but it also cost taxpayers $243 million. Perry calls that a win-win. Perry also “deregulated” tuition at state colleges and universities. This free-market reform increased tuition 55 percent in a decade. Not content to make college unaffordable, Perry has tried—so far without success—“to apply the cost-benefit logic of business to public higher education.” This is a great idea if you think a university should run its English Department like Enron. Apparently Perry does.  Houston Chronicle

MD: County Commissioners done with large-scale privatization, Young says. The era of wholesale privatization in county government is coming to a close, and the surviving three quarters of the county workforce can breathe a sigh of relief, according to Commissioners President Blaine Young. Frederick News Post

KS: Child Support Workers Laid Off as Kansas Moves to Privatization. Division of the Kansas Department for Children and Families will be laid off by September 20, 2013, as the state moves to privatization of child support enforcement. HPPR

UK: Royal Mail Privatisation: Business Department Risks ‘Chaos’ In Announcement Of £3bn Move.  The government’s plan to take the Royal Mail into private ownership is expected to be revealed this week, with critics warning the process could cause “complete chaos” for the UK’s postal service.”…. They’ve nationalized the debt and they want to privatize the profit. Not even Thatcher wanted to privatize it, she never wanted to do that,” he added. “There’s room for complete chaos in the privatisation process.” Huffington Post UK

House GOP apparently wants to be even more unpopular. The plan to privatize Medicare, perhaps the most controversial aspect of the Ryan budget, is the holy grail for conservatives who say major deficit-reduction can only be achieved by making this type of cut to mandatory spending. Salon

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PA: Liquor lobbyists spent over $900000 towards privatizing alcohol sales in Pa.. Last week, Gov. Tom Corbett’s dream of privatizing liquor sales in Pennsylvania went down in flames, as state senators couldn’t agree on a plan to get the commonwealth out of the booze business…. According to records from the Pennsylvania Department of State’s Lobbying Disclosure database, $925,898 has been spent on alcoholic beverages lobbying so far in 2013. Corporations, unions, wineries, beer distributors and trade groups sought to make their voices heard above the din of what one newspaper called one of “the largest public flocks of lobbyists” in recent memory. Stakeholders also poured thousands of dollars into the campaign coffers of influential legislators who helped to craft, or cripple, the legislative proposals.  Lancaster Newspapers

PA: Here’s why liquor privatization failed – opinion. We learned that privatization will not deliver a huge windfall, as was promised by some proponents, who promised that an auction of the licenses was going to generate between $2 billion and $6 billion. Those rosy estimates dropped and dropped to $800 million before ultimately disappearing entirely. Any ‘”windfall”’ will not make up for the lost revenue provided each year by the LCB. PennLive.com

FL: Prison Health Care Privatization. On paper privatizing the prison health care system looks like a good deal. ” If we can provide a great service at a better price, then we ought to be doing that,” said Governor Scott. A two-year legal showdown may prove otherwise. A recent 1st District Court of Appeals sided with the state. It will allow Florida to outsource the prison health care system. Leaving nearly 2,000 state workers in limbo. WJHG-TV

VA: Editorial: Footing the bill for roads. Gov. McDonnell’s proposed Public-Private Transportation Act Pipeline, released Monday, feels disturbingly like an attempt to shirk from one of government’s most basic obligations: providing an efficient transportation infrastructure. Daily Press

CA: Editorial: University privatization a possibility. It should be remembered that taxpayer dollars helped build institutions such as the Anderson school. Continued public support helps ensure the school remains focused on service to California, as opposed to service to alumni and corporations that contribute to the school. It would be a vote of confidence in the state for the UC to hold back on further moves toward privatization. It also should reassess some of the revenue-generating moves it made during tight times, such aggressive recruitment of foreign students willing to pay out-of-state tuition.  Merced Sun-Star

Repub Rep calls for privatizing the student loan system. The interest rate on new subsidized Stafford loans doubled to 6.8%.  The rate hike is expected to impact seven million students who need the loans for the coming school year. Iowa Republican Congressman, Steve King, says he wants to see the private sector put back into student loans so competition in the market would keep the interest rates down. KTIV

TSA used flawed data in approving privatized airport screening. Erroneous and incomplete information factored into decisions to privatize airport security screening, although  access to the correct information wouldn’t have changed outcomes so far, says a report from the Homeland Security Department office of inspector general says….Fourteen of the 25 documents TSA used to evaluate those applications contained errors or omissions, says the report. One of documents underestimated–by about $424,000–the savings that would result from switching to private screening.  Fierce Homeland Security

More oversight, uniformity called for as states increasingly turn to privatized Medicaid. Advocates and experts say that the need for oversight is growing nationally as states have increasingly contracted out the huge state-federal program for the poor to insurance companies, aiming to control costs and improve quality through close management of patient care. About 30 million people are in these plans now. Under the federal health law that launches Jan. 1, eligibility will be expanded and about 7 million more will be covered by Medicaid. Many will be placed in managed care.  MedCityNews.com