News

For-Profit Colleges Get Schooled

As consumers wise up about education spending, for-profit colleges are getting schooled. Institutions such as Apollo Group Inc.’s University of Phoenix, DeVry Inc. and Washington Post Co.’s Kaplan—who only a few years ago reported double-digit student gains on a regular basis and posted hundreds of millions in profits—now are hemorrhaging students. They are facing increased competition from nonprofit and state schools and growing skepticism about the value of a high-cost education. Just last week, industry bellwether Apollo said it would close nearly half of its brick-and-mortar locations to save on overhead.  The Wall Street Journal

AZ: Proposition would give Arizona authority over federal land

A proposition before voters in less than two weeks would, if passed, give Arizona officials control over federal lands within the state. Prop. 120 would change the state Constitution to declare the state‘s authority and jurisdiction over its air, water, minerals, wildlife and other natural resources on public federal lands with the exclusion of Native Indian tribal land. Opponents say that the proposition would give the state legislature control over federal forest, national parks and wilderness areas possibly to sell off to private interests. The sponsor of Prop 120 also supports uranium mining in the Grand Canyon watershed. Mohave Valley News

GA: Gwinnett at center of charter amendment fight

In the highly contested fight over the charter school amendment, Gwinnett County is ground zero. Republican Gov. Nathan Deal headlines the amendment’s backers, who are pushing to re-create a state commission with the authority to approve charter schools that have been previously denied by local boards of education. Opponents, including GOP state School Superintendent John Barge, say that charter school applicants already have an avenue of appeal through the state Board of Education and that the amendment would create a new state bureaucracy that could siphon money away from traditional public schools.  Atlanta Journal Constitution

TX: Texas opens first 85-mph highway in US, but trucks may shun it

A new 41-mile (65-kilometer) stretch of toll road between San Antonio and Austin is now open with an 85-mph (137-kph) speed limit, the highest posted speed limit in the United States. State transportation officials hope that the speed limit will be an incentive for motorists to pay the roughly $12 toll to drive on the 90-mile (145-km) road.,,,But some 18-wheel trucks, many of which are hauling items manufactured in Mexico to plants in the United States, may not be keen to take to the new road, according to Darrin Roth of the American Trucking Association. Many trucking companies prevent their vehicles from going faster than 70 mph or 75 mph, he said, and fuel consumption goes up exponentially as speeds increase – potentially cutting into company profits.” For truck drivers to be on a road where other motorists are going 85 or even more, they just don’t feel safe,” Roth said.  Yahoo! News ‎

 

 

 

News

FL: License tag privatization plans put on hold

Plans by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to privatize the state license plate tag distribution system went back to the drawing board after county tax collectors around the state raised concerns. Tallahassee Democrat

IL: Cleveland’s charter school growth a cautionary tale for Chicago

Ohio school ratings released last week show most charters that serve disadvantaged students in Cleveland have not matched Citizens’ success, and almost a third of those schools got D and F grades from the state.….[A ]fter nearly 15 years, they have yet to turn around the struggling district — which got an F in the state ratings. Cleveland’s experience could be a cautionary tale for cities like Chicago that want to accelerate private-sector reforms for public schools. Mayor Rahm Emanuel is pushing an aggressive expansion of charter schools. The district has proposed adding 60 charter schools over five years, which would increase the share of charters to about a quarter of all public schools in Chicago.  Chicago Tribune

OH: Lawmakers prepare bill requiring bigger public role before turnpike outsourcing

Reps. Matt Lundy of Elyria and Ronald Gerberry of Austintown said Tuesday they’re preparing legislation that would require the state Turnpike Commission to hold four public hearings within three months of any proposed outsourcing of turnpike operations or maintenance. Lundy said Ohioans in communities all along the Turnpike — which stretches 241 miles across northern Ohio from Pennsylvania to Indiana — are outraged at not being consulted on Gov. John Kasich’s plans to potentially privatize the tollway.  The Republic

CA: Parent-Trigger Case Ends with Charter Taking Over Struggling California School

The election was the state’s first vote for a charter school under the law, which gave parents the power to petition for such charter conversions, staff overhauls or other sweeping changes at low-performing schools…. But some school officials and parents expressed concern that only 53 ballots were cast in the charter election. Although the school has about 400 families with 610 students, only 180 parents who signed the petition for a charter campus during the campaign last year were eligible to vote under the parent-trigger law.  Los Angeles Times

KY: Kentucky Spirit files lawsuit alleging state provided faulty Medicaid data

Steve Beshear’s administration rushed to privatize Medicaid management last year and, in its haste, provided incorrect cost information to the bidders, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Franklin Circuit Court.  Lexington Herald Leader

TX: As toll road opens, a question lingers: is 85 mph safe?

The Legislature, based on a law it passed last year, thought driving that speed — a higher limit than any other road in America — will be safe, or at least sufficiently safe to justify the time savings and other economic benefits it could bring to drivers and the state. That includes a $100 million payment to the Texas Department of Transportation (tied to the higher speed limit) from the company that built the tollway, will operate it and will pocket the toll revenue for the next 50 years. But some traffic safety experts say that when a speed limit is increased, drivers typically go faster; that when speeds increase there are more accidents; and that more people die in those accidents because of the greater forces involved.“We have decades of study and data, and conclusive evidence, that people do respond to speed limits no matter how high they’re set,” said Richard Retting, a widely published traffic safety expert and vice president of the New York-based engineering firm Sam Schwartz Inc. “We just have to learn that there is no free lunch when it comes to high speed limits. And the price we pay is higher speeds and a higher fatality rate.”  Austin American-Statesman

News

LA: Talk About the South: Jindal faces setback

Viewed as a done deal by many political watchers, the Office of Group Benefits, a successful state employee-run insurance program, was to be privatized…on Thursday. The vote was cancelled on Wednesday…Why is the governor dead set on privatizing the Office of Group Benefits? Not to save money. Instead, it is being done to raid a $500 million fund, not that he’s against privatizing state services just for the hell of it. Though insurance premiums may go down at first, the private insurance provider for the PPO insurance program will soon raise the premiums. This will cause taxes to go up, state workers and retirees to pay higher premiums, and the quality of health care to go down. Who cares about the details? It’ll help Jindal ingratiate himself with a major insurance company such as Blue Cross-Blue Shield. Throw a little bone to his backers, and they’ll remember him come election time with direct campaign contributions and PAC money. Hammond Daily Star

MI:  Mayor Bing to Detroit City Council: Work with me to help our city

He said the city’s hiring of a private company to manage the Detroit Department of Transportation has brought some improvements — transit advocates say they’ve seen little if any — but he wants to put a new contract out to bid to more fully privatize DDOT’s operations to further cut the city’s annual bus subsidy. Detroit Free Press

TX: 85-mph toll road to open Wednesday

A 40-mile stretch of a Central Texas toll road is slated to open Wednesday, and officials and residents will be watching to see how fast traffic goes – and whether the state’s drivers can handle the extra speed…. Jeff Gibeaux, a civil engineer in Lockhart who expects to take Texas 130, said he considers it a certainty that some drivers won’t be satisfied at 85. “I think people will routinely pass me going 100,” Gibeaux said. “Regardless of the speed limit, there’s always going to be people who want to go past it.” KENS 5 TV

CA:  Orange County Board Rejects Controversial 405 Toll Road

Orange County Transportation Authority board members voted 10-6 Monday not to add toll roads in an attempt to ease traffic on a busy stretch of the I-405 freeway. KTLA

 

News

OH: Privatization will mean higher fees on turnpike

Tolls on the Ohio Turnpike would rise under any plan to privatize the northern highway, but state officials noted it is no different than what is happening on the road now. The Ohio Department of Transportation on Monday presented an update to the Ohio Turnpike Commission on the $3.4 million study being conducted by Texas-based KPMG Corporate Finance LLC.   Mansfield News Journal

FL: Tax Collectors Fighting Tag Privatization

The state’s Highway Safety Director outlined the plan to centralize tag distribution two weeks ago. ..But privatizing would likely raise the cost of a tag by two and a half dollars in at least 16 counties that don’t charge an add on fee for distributions. Paying more is something Alex doesn’t want to do. “Yeah, my speeding ticket was 288 and then this fee was 80 and the fee for not having it was 123 so that’s 500 dollar day”, says Stefanowitz. Capitol News Service

FL: Charter school companies, online learning outfits try to wield influence in Tallahassee

His school management company, Charter Schools USA, has doled out more than For-profit education companies are becoming serious players in lobbying the Florida Legislature. In the current election cycle, charter school companies, school management firms, online learning outfits and for-profit colleges have lavished more than $1.8 million to statehouse candidates, electioneering organizations and political parties, according to a Miami Herald review of Florida campaign finance data. Most of the money went to Republicans, whose support of charter schools, vouchers, online education and private colleges has put public education dollars in private-sector pockets. Tampabay.com

IN:  Report Labels Indiana Toll Road an Intergenerational Cash Transfer

A College of William and Mary professor believes the toll road public-private partnerships currently in vogue among transportation bureaucrats may end up costing the public a great deal of money in the long run. TheNewspaper.com

IN: Controversial policies spark challenge in Indiana school superintendent race

“Everything is tied to the privatization of schools — the high-stakes testing, the A-to-F grades, the charters, the takeovers, the vouchers, even the teacher licensing pieces. They’re all tied to the one political agenda of privatizing schools.”  Courier Press

IN: Hoosier Lottery: Privatization bids now online

The Hoosier Lottery has now placed recent bids to privatize certain functions online, and is working to reduce the amount of information redacted in the information from the winning company. The move came after The Journal Gazette reported Wednesday that huge portions of the two bids were blank or shielded from public view, and that the documents were not available to citizens online. The final agreement between the Hoosier Lottery and GTECH Indiana, LLC – which won the contract – also was made public. In the previous story, Gov. Mitch Daniels said he would talk to the lottery about making as much information public as possible. Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

NE: Emotion, concern at student health center forum

Emotional students concerned about losing their inexpensive health care aired their frustrations Thursday. The Association of Students of the University of Nebraska hosted the town hall meeting, which featured three university administrators answering students’ questions about the privatization plan. One of those administrators, James Guest, the health center’s director, called the university’s process for seeking a private provider Thursday a “flawed process.” Lincoln Journal Star

Conservatives Attack US Post Office to Break the Union and Privatize Postal Services

The US Postal Service has been under constant assault for years from conservative Republicans who aim to eviscerate the strongest union in the country. Under the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, USPS must fully fund retiree health benefits for future retirees—including the retirement packages of employees not even born yet. No other organization, public or private, has to pre-fund 100 percent of its future health benefits. Thus, the post office’s oft-reported nine-billion-dollar deficit is largely a result of government-imposed overpayments.  Project Censored

News

IN: Professor: Gov. Daniels’ Indiana Toll Road lease burdens future generations

The funds from the Indiana Toll Road lease provided a short-term, politically easy win for Gov. Mitch Daniels and his allies, to the long-term detriment of future generations. At least that’s what John B. Gilmour, a government and public policy professor at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, contends in a paper recently published… Gilmour starts his paper likening such leases to debtors in the Middle Ages saddling their children with their debts. “Today, happily, laws shield children from intergenerational debt collection. No laws stop governments, however, from borrowing and shifting the cost of repayment to future generations. This can be a very attractive strategy for politicians who wish to provide costly benefits to contemporary voters without imposing any costs on them. One means of accomplishing this feat is the long-term asset lease. “ Indy Star

IN: Company Claims Lotto Commission Mishandled Privatization

The Indiana Lottery Commission is facing a legal protest from a company called Scientific Games over the state’s handling of the bid process during the commission’s recent choosing of a new vendor for the Hoosier Lottery. Scientific Games claims in their protest that the commission did not properly evaluate both its bid and the eventual winning bid from a company called GTECH.  Indiana Public Media

IN:  Indy Mayor pushing for public-private partnerships for city parks

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard is pushing a new initiative aimed at improving the city’s parks through public-private partnerships.  Fox 59

PA: Pa. Legislature Wraps Up With No Action On Liquor Store Privatization

Pennsylvania lawmakers have wrapped up another two-year session without action on privatizing liquor sales. That may not bode well for supporters of the idea.  CBS Philly

PA: Oped: Privatization Madness: Now Private Companies are Collecting Our Taxes

This tax privatization business is sure nice work if you can get it. And Berkheimer got it because the professional association of CPAs in the state lobbied the Pennsylvania state legislature heavily in 2009 to get a law passed mandating (got that? mandating!) that all townships in each county in the state get together and hire one organization to collect all their taxes. My county, Montgomery County PA, which opposed the bill, hired Berkheimer.  So did a lot of other counties. The company, created expressly to capitalize on the new law, has 17 offices dotted around the state according to their website, to collect the taxes for hundreds of towns, school districts and other local entities. How much are they getting paid in total for all this “work”? That would be hard to ascertain. The company is private, and is not subject to any sunshine laws.  Oped News

IL: Corruption at Red Light firm threatens Chicago contract

As the Tribune first reported, Redflex spent $910.71 on a luxury two-day stay in 2010 for John Bills, the Chicago official in charge of the red light camera contract. Redflex did announce it had implemented anti-bribery classes for its employees to prevent further ethical lapses — two years later. Chicago’s Department of Procurement Services was not impressed. “I understand that Redflex has stated that it has taken steps to train employees to protect against similar misconduct in the future,” Chief Procurement Officer Jamie L. Rhee wrote. “While I commend Redflex for any actions it may have taken to mitigate the misconduct that occurred, I want to be very clear on what Redflex did not do: notify the city of the incident in any kind of timely manner. It appears that Redflex disclosed the incident to the city only after it realized that the story was going to appear in the newspapers.”  TheNewspaper.com

NY: Students organize protests against tuition increases, privatization

A group of SUNY-New Paltz students are rising up against ever-increasing tuition and their belief that the SUNY/CUNY system is becoming increasing less public and more privatized.  New Paltz Times

CA: California ‘parent trigger’ passes court test

The petitioning parents scored their latest victory in Victorville Superior Court on Friday, when Judge John Vander Feer ruled that the Adelanto School District must let them press on with plans to convert Desert Trails into a charter school, effective fall of  2013. The judge’s decision reinforced a July 18 ruling by another judge who found the district couldn’t use the signature withdrawals to quash the charter petition.  NBC News

VA: Board approves financing for US 460 toll-road project

The Commonwealth Transportation Board approved the financing arrangements Wednesday to make the $1.4 billion U.S. 460 toll-road project a reality. The state anticipates finalizing the deal with US 460 Mobility Partners, the project’s design-build consortium, in December, officials told the state Transportation Board. Richmond Times Dispatch

Predator Military Contractors: Privatizing the Drones

[T]he extent to which today’s contractors are involved in maintaining and operating the U.S. premier robot system, aerial drones, will likely come as a surprise to you. It certain did to me after reading the article, “Drone-Sourcing? United States Air Force Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Inherently Governmental Functions, and the Role of Contractors,” published last month in George Washington University’s Federal Circuit Bar Journal…”And, most importantly, if private contractors are supporting UAS missions, are they performing tasks that should be reserved exclusively for government personnel?”  Huffington Post

 

 

News

TN: Charter School Flap Escalates

Tennessee education officials withheld $3.4 million from Nashville’s school district after the city barred a charter school from opening in an affluent neighborhood, in a fight that highlights the growing tension over the expansion of such schools…. Until this year, only low-income students or those in low-performing schools were allowed to attend charter schools in Tennessee. But a change in state law last year cleared the way for any child to enroll. The Nashville school board had twice rejected the Great Hearts application, saying the proposed school would enroll students only from middle- and upper-income communities in West Nashville and, therefore, harm the system’s efforts to diversify schools.  The Wall Street Journal

IL: Parents air grievances about privatized school bus service

Since literally the first day that Auxilio Services of Cincinnati took over transportation services for Galesburg-Augusta Community Schools, parents have experienced major problems, residents told the Galesburg school board at a standing-room-only meeting meeting Monday. Kalamazoo Gazette

TX: The price of privatization – Jim Hightower

In 2005, the Republican governor and legislature in my state of Texas drank deeply from the cup of privatization theory, resulting in Accenture Inc. getting a nice contract to show its corporate prowess in handling food stamp applications. Accenture computers and consultants arrived, and 2,900 state workers exited. After months of bumbling, Accenture botched the job so badly that the state’s sheepish officials had to fire the corporation and give the program back to the state. But — oh! — one little problem. Those 2,900 fired workers were gone. Having moved, taken other jobs, or just gotten fed up, most weren’t coming back…  Prior to privatization, the Texas food stamp program won national praise for its efficiency. Now it’s a mess — and hungry people are paying the price.  Boulder Weekly

Five Factors That Will Determine Whether TIFIA Benefits Transit

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) study this summer observed that TIFIA has heavily tilted toward “large, high-cost highway projects…A closer look at the GAO data shows an even stronger highway slant. In 2010 and 2011, transit received only 16.6 percent of TIFIA assistance and most of this money was for short-term loans that were quickly retired. It’s not hard to see how private investors would view toll roads as more likely to generate profit. Projects with indirect costs borne largely by society may have a leg up compared to those that require subsidies. Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Garbage firms dig around for growth

Waste management companies can’t make people throw out more garbage, but they can try and coax more municipalities to contract out household waste collection and ensure that more of it ends up in private facilities. That is a potential $8 billion opportunity …”Municipalities that increasingly face fiscal constraints may want to privatize, in other words sell off their landfills, garbage trucks and staff,” said Morgan Stanley analyst Vance Edelson. Politics also plays a big role. Big municipalities are wary of laying off perhaps thousands of workers and facing off with unions if waste management is privatized, analysts say. Still, privatization is not a new concept in the $50 billion U.S. garbage industry. Three decades ago, more than 75 percent of collection and disposal of trash was managed by municipalities, said Waste Business Journal. But the garbage industry has found it tough to get contracts from larger cities, especially in the Midwest and Northeast. Some, like New York City, have privatized only a part of the process.  Reuters

CA: SAN BERNARDINO: Refuse outsourcing hits bump in road.

Virtually the same council members who in August voted in favor of contracting out part of trash collection service to bring in cash for the bankrupt city, voted on Monday to table the proposal. They didn’t say why.  Press-Enterprise

NH: Prison privatization faces an uphill battle

The plan to privatize New Hampshire’s prison probably won’t be approved by the Executive Council this year — and will have a foe in the corner office next year, no matter who wins the gubernatorial race – putting the privatization process in jeopardy.  New Hampshire Business Review

IL: Black aldermen criticize Chicago’s outsourcing plan

Several African-American aldermen took aim Tuesday at Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to outsource telephone customer service jobs at the Water Management Department, saying the effort would have an unfair impact on black employees.  Chicago Tribune

LA: Lawmakers delay vote on privatization

What promises to be a close legislative committee vote on the proposal to privatize the remaining Louisiana Office of Group Benefits insurance plan has been postponed by the House Appropriations and Senate Finance chairmen. Opponents such as state Rep. Katrina Jackson, D-Monroe, said they believe the vote was postponed because the administration doesn’t have the votes to approve it. Jackson said she has been lobbying colleagues for weeks to oppose the transfer and believes she has gained traction. “They don’t have the votes,” she said. “What you’re seeing now is legislative independence coming forth. We’re showing that we’re not just a rubber stamp for the governor. We’re doing exactly what we’re supposed to do, which is acting as a check and balance for the executive branch.” Jackson said the administration hasn’t proven to her that the move would save $20 million annually, and she opposes what she said would be more than a $70 million payment to Blue Cross from the OGB surplus to administer the PPO.  Monroe News Star

News

Study: Privatized Medicare would raise premiums

Nearly six in 10 Medicare recipients would pay higher premiums under a hypothetical privatized system, with wide regional differences leading to big hikes in some states and counties, a study released Monday finds.  Boston Globe

U.S. Privatizes National Forests, Nonprofit Claims

The U.S. Forest Service lets private companies charge people for using undeveloped public lands, in violation of federal law, an Oregon nonprofit claims in Federal Court. Lead plaintiff BARK clams the Forest Service’s grants to concessionaires violates the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act. BARK has 7,000 members, many of them who live near the Mt. Hood National Forest.  Courthouse News Service

OH: Ohio governor considers privatizing state turnpike

The governor of Ohio, John Kasich, has said he wants to privatize the Ohio Turnpike, a 241-mile road that stretches across the Buckeye State. “I think it’s safe to say that many residents in northern Ohio are skeptical, because they fear higher tolls and potentially more potholes,” says Trevor Brown, a professor of public policy at Ohio State. It costs $16.50 to drive the whole length of the Ohio Turnpike, from Pennsylvania to Indiana. If the state does lease it, tolls would probably go up. Marketplace.org

FL: State agency privatizes its juvenile facilities

The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice will privatize its five remaining residential facilities by next year. The agency has been using prevention services to work with offenders at home and sending those considered high-risk to a residential facility. A 2004 study by Yale economists Patrick Bayer and David Pozen on privately-run juvenile facilities in Florida found a trade off in the results. Their cost-benefit analysis implied that the short-run savings offered by privatization would be reversed by increased recidivism rates. The Florida Current

WI: Majority of Wis. school districts to lose aid

The majority of Wisconsin public school districts will see less money in state aid this year. Even though state aid increased by about $32 million, the amount public schools will get will decrease over the prior year after about $158 million is directed toward private school choice programs in Milwaukee and Racine.  Gazette Extra

TX: Texas to expand I-35W with toll lanes in Fort Worth

The Texas Department of Transportation believes the best way to manage congestion on Interstate 35W in Fort Worth is to add a pair of toll lanes in each direction. The project, known as the North Tarrant Express, is being constructed by a group that includes Cintra, the Spanish toll operator that owns stake in the Indiana Toll Road. The Spanish toll operator Cintra has gotten a lot of work in Texas in recent years. The company is involved in the group that will operate the SH 130 toll road between Austin and San Antonio. That’s the one that will carry a maximum posted speed limit of 85 mph when it opens in a few weeks. Land Line Magazine

 

News

IN: Contract signed on Indiana lottery outsourcing deal

Indiana officials have signed a deal to hire a private company to manage the state’s lottery. The lottery announced Friday that it had finalized a 15-year contract for Rhode Island-based GTECH to run the lottery’s marketing, sales and distribution services. The state lottery commission voted Oct. 3 to select GTECH and work out details of the agreement. Lottery officials hope the company will boost state profits by about $2.1 billion over the contract’s 15 years.  WTHR.com

IN: New Albany will end sewer privatization

“By bringing this public utility back under public management, we will not only save taxpayer money, but we will also eliminate the outsourcing of these good-paying jobs to an outside company,” Mayor Gahan stated in the release. He said in January part of the reason he placed himself on the sewer board was to help shift the city away from privatization of the utility…. Wilkinson said he pushed for the city to end privatization of utility billing, and also supports the decision to not renew the sewer contract with EMC. Not only is it financially feasible, but the city should be able to provide more maintenance focus on the sewer system than EMC, Wilkinson said of the move.  News and Tribune

FL: Winner may make difference in new laws

The race isn’t likely to end Republican control of the state Senate, but the winner in the newly created District 14 could be the deciding vote on bills that narrowly lost in the Senate in the last legislative season. Democrat Darren Soto, 34, a two-term House representative from Orlando, opposes privatizing the state’s prisons – a bill that died in the Senate by just one vote – and said he now opposes a bill that would have made it easier for public schools to become a conversion charter school. Republican Will McBride, 40, who ran for U.S. Senate in 2006 and 2010, supports privatizing prisons and said he supports school choice and would support making it easier for public schools to convert to charter schools.  NewsChief.com

PA: Don’t confuse Hollywood movie with educational reality – Op Ed

Educators such as me teach our students how to separate fact from fiction. That’s why it’s important that everyone puts the movie “Won’t Back Down” in the proper perspective. Despite a fierce marketing campaign by the film’s funders, billionaires who want to privatize public schools to benefit for-profit operators, the movie is a box-office flop. Why? Because the picture it paints of educators — and public education in Pennsylvania — just isn’t true. It doesn’t match the real-life experience most parents, students and educators have with their public schools. The Patriot-News

LA: Letter dissuades request

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s executive counsel suggested LSU reject public records requests for documents related to budget cuts and privatization efforts at LSU’s public hospitals, according to a letter from the LSU system’s outside counsel. The letter to LSU system President William Jenkins, obtained Friday by The Advocate, contradicts earlier assertions by Jindal administration officials that LSU decided on its own how to respond to requests to make the records available publicly. Jindal’s top lawyer, Executive Counsel Liz Murrill, reviewed the records before being released and suggested LSU use the “deliberative process privilege” as grounds to keep some records out of the public domain, the letter stated.  The Advocate

IL:  How much are your willing to pay to avoid traffic?

Officials at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning think drivers will see value in a congestion-pricing plan that the agency is recommending be implemented on new highway lanes planned on six major existing and future roadways across the six-county area. Under congestion pricing, drivers who opt to use free-flowing express lanes pay a fee, or an extra toll on the Illinois Tollway, during peak traffic periods. The price goes down when fewer vehicles are on the roads.  Chicago Tribune

Relocating Culture to Find a Solution to the Tragedy of the Commons

Is privatization a viable way to deal with global problems such as climate change that seem to stem from a tragedy of the commons? Two main problems come to mind. Firstly, the anthropocentric mindset coupled with the consumer mentality that dominates our western culture generally consider the natural world as nothing more than a bank of resources to be mined and exploited for the advancement and development of the human species (or at least for the segment of population benefitting from that mindset). According to famous naturalist Aldo Leopold, “We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.” When land is seen as nothing more than a commodity in the eyes of society, privatization can only lead to increased destruction. Secondly, our actions inevitably stem from the mindset behind them. Huffington Post

 

News

Ryan: Romney And I Support Social Security Privatization

In the vice presidential debate Thursday night, Paul Ryan seemed to indicate that a Romney-Ryan administration would support the idea of giving younger Americans the option to move their Social Security benefits into private retirement accounts. The Wisconsin congressman and House Budget Committee chairman talked up the concept when asked about his and Romney’s backing of President George W. Bush’s failed Social Security privatization plan. The extent of Romney’s support for privatization is questionable because his official Social Security platform calls for incrementally raising the eligibility age and lowering benefits for high-income recipients. It does not mention the privatization proposal, but Ryan’s remarks indicate that the Romney-Ryan ticket supports the principle. Two Romney-Ryan campaign spokespersons did not respond to requests for comment.  TalkingPointsMemo

Mitt Romney taps Bushies for transpo advice

But as might be expected, the team is heavy on a privatization agenda, dovetailing with the Bush administration’s flagship stances spanning different modes. That would include an attempt to privatize some air traffic controllers and Amtrak, as well as a push for more toll roads and public-private partnerships for highways. Politico

Three Reasons for the Federal Government to Support Big Bird and PBS

First and foremost, one of the main priorities of government should be support for the arts and creative education, which is at the heart of PBS’s mission. Public broadcasting is a public good, with a central principle being the provision of coverage for interests for which there is a small or missing market. In contrast, PBS is a major supporter of the only television station that reaches much of rural Alaska. Contrary to what Romney implied in last week’s debate, spending on public broadcasting has virtually no impact on the nation’s deficit, which is largely explained by Medicare and the aging of the population… This small sum represents our nation’s commitment to arts, culture, and education, and the use of television as a critical medium for connecting the public to these resources. This commitment is a key element of any developed, civilized society. To eliminate it entirely would be the beginning of an abdication of one of government’s central functions, one that endures even in times of austerity.  US News and World Report

OH: Prison Privatization Blues

A state audit of the private prison sold by Gov. John Kasich last year found the prison is only meeting 66.7 percent of the state’s standards. The report, released last week, found a total of 47 violations in a northeastern Ohio prison owned by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), which the state government sold to CCA last year as part of a privatization push set out in Ohio’s 2012-13 budget. The violations noted in the Ohio Department of Correction and Rehabilitation (ODRC) audit range from staff training problems to poor food quality, with some inmates feeling unsafe due to the lack of control among prison staff.   City Beat

MI: Moms Gather to Protest Student Assault by Bus Employee

After FOX 17 obtained a video shot on a bus showing an employee of the transit company assaulting a student, mothers gathered in protest outside Galesburg-Augusta Elementary, while cars drove by honking in support….Like many others at the protest, Andrea thinks the privatization of the bussing was a bad decision for the school. “Bring our community back together.  Bring our community back to driving the bus, the person that drove me when I went to Galesburg, the ones that I want to drive my children.” The schools bus drivers who were laid off when the school agreed to contract with a private company are also upset. They were let go this past summer after more than 10 years of driving with the school. “It’s a private company so I think the community is not part of the school district anymore,” Tammy Hoffman, Former Bus Driver and union member.  Fox17

 

 

News

OH: Ohio decides against privatization of more prisons

Ohio became the first state to sell a state-owned penitentiary to a private prison company earlier this year…. Corrections Corporation of America recently issued offers to buy prisons to 48 state governors, pitching it as a solution for indebted states. However, in order for CCA to buy the prisons, the governors would have to agree to keep those prisons at 90% capacity. The ACLU asserts that privatization would invite even more state debt, which taxpayers would be stuck with financing for at least twenty more years. The ACLU of Ohio hopes that the ODRC will also decide not to privatize prison services including food and healthcare…According to Brickner, Ohio is beginning to move toward reform for its overcrowded, congested prison system. A move toward prison privatization would have a different goal: the corporations behind privatization have financial interests is making sure that prisons stay full.  Guardian

TX: Spanish Company Signs 50-Year, For-Profit I-35W Toll Deal

The Texas Department of Transportation on Wednesday signed a 50-year deal with a Spanish company to add private, for-profit toll lanes along Interstate 35 north of downtown Fort Worth — a stretch of highway considered the most congested in the state…. The deal is with NTE Mobility Partners Segments 3 LLC, which is a subsidiary of Cintra, a Spanish company that builds similar toll roads around the world, including several in North Texas. Critics such as state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, say Texas is selling its future. “I’m against toll roads,” he said. “But I’m even more strongly against privately owned toll roads, and that’s what we’re confronting here. And frankly, the way it’s being presented is, ‘My way or the highway.'” “We shouldn’t be exporting our local transportation dollars to Spain,” he said. NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

TX: Opening date announced for 85-mph toll road

A Central Texas toll road boasting the country’s fast speed limit will open to traffic Oct. 24….Those speeds have garnered praise but also raised safety concerns. Some truck drivers and trucking companies have said they can’t safely drive at speeds that high. The new Texas 130 segment is the state’s first public-private toll road: the state owns the road and right-of-way, but a private consortium owned by Spain-based Cintra and San Antonio company Zachry American Infrastructure funded the road’s construction. Their joint venture, the SH 130 Concession Company, will pay for the road’s ongoing maintenance and operations for 50 years, according to a lease with the Texas Department of Transportation. The company and the state will share the toll revenues.  San Antonio Express

WV: Privatizing roads becomes issue in governor’s race

When the issue of privatizing some state services came up during Tuesday’s gubernatorial debate, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and Republican challenger Bill Maloney took different roads. “Privatizing roads is something people have looked at in other states,” Maloney said. “There’s a lot of things we need to look at that the private sector could probably do better.” While Tomblin called the state’s privatization of workers’ compensation insurance a success, he was reticent about privatizing other state programs or services. “There are a lot of things government does best,” he said. Asked to elaborate on Maloney’s position on privatizing state toll roads, Maloney campaign manager Seth Wimer instead issued a statement saying in part, “We’re most interested in privatizing Earl Ray Tomblin. That is our top priority.” Charleston Gazette

More People Are Riding Amtrak, But Republicans Pledge To Cut Funding

Amtrak, the federally-subsidized passenger rail that runs across the country, experienced a 3.5 percent jump in ridership last fiscal year, with a total of 31.2 million passengers taking the train. More people rode Amtrak trains last year than any time since 1971. But despite the growth in rides (and the subsequent jump in profits, as revenue from tickets grew 6.8 percent), the Republican party sees Amtrak as an unprofitable venture, and called in their platform to privatize it entirely, a move that would likely cut off train service to rural Americans who don’t live on high-frequency train routes. ThinkProgress

5 crazy things Paul Ryan actually believes

Before even his own party shot his plan down, Paul Ryan was very explicit about wanting to privatize Social Security. Ryan has called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme,” and when George W. Bush was president, Ryan pushed a privatization agenda that was even too extreme for Bush.  Had Ryan succeeded, Social Security would have been bankrupted by the recent financial crash.  Yet despite this and broad public opposition, Ryan has continued to advocate privatization while insisting that his plan’s broad lack of popular support is due to marketing problems, not flaws with the plan itself.   Still, most Americans oppose changes to Social Security and actually support raising taxes to keep the program solvent for future generations.  Salon