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Privatization

Education In Crisis And The Threat Of Privatization

By Diane Ravitch for The Huffington Post - It has become conventional wisdom that “education is in crisis.” I have been asked about this question by many interviewers. They say something like: “Do you think American education is in crisis? What is the cause of the crisis?” And I answer, “Yes, there is a crisis, but it is not the one you have read about. The crisis in education today is an existential threat to the survival of public education. The threat comes from those who unfairly blame the school for social conditions, and then create a false narrative of failure.

Newsletter: Justice Takes A Lifetime

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. The #BlackLivesMatter movement continues to grow its power and have notable victories, but 600 hundred years of racial oppression, older than the nation itself, will not be rooted out quickly. The movement had a series of electoral and other victories this week. These victories for #BLM and their supporters are notable but problems still persist and the movement must continue to grow and get stronger. There are no quick fixes to a country that is crippled by its history of racism. We must all recognize that the work we are doing for racial, economic and environmental justice requires us to be persistent and uncompromising. achieve the transformational justice we seek will last our lifetimes – a marathon and not a sprint.

Flint & Detroit: The Failures Of Privatization And Non-Democracy

By David Bacon for The Reality Check - In spite of the growing sense of disbelief and horror surrounding the lead contamination of drinking water in the Michigan city of Flint, at least one thing is clear: that the catastrophic levels of pollution and destruction are a direct result of the extreme policies pursued by the Michigan's right-wing leadership. A very conservative group has controlled Michigan since the election of Governor Rick Snyder and a Republican majority in its legislature in 2011.

Privatized Water 58% More Than Government Water

By Ben Norton for Salon - The most affordable water systems in the U.S. are publicly owned and operated by the government, an exhaustive study reveals. At the same time, for-profit private water companies charge 58 percent more than publicly owned ones. Food & Water Watch, a non-governmental consumer rights organization based in D.C., comprehensively surveyed the 500 largest community water systems in the U.S., in what it says is “the largest U.S. water rate survey of its kind.”

Venezuela Agricultural Communes Oppose Privatization Of Lands

By Lucas Koerner for Venezuela Analysis – After passing a motion by majority vote on Tuesday, Venezuela’s National Assembly will launch an inquiry into the expropriations of privately owned land and enterprises spearheaded by the socialist government in past years. The country’s newly elected parliament, dominated by the right-wing opposition, has vowed to reverse the socialist government’s social and economic policies, which included the breakup of large private firms and landholdings deemed unproductive and their transfer to state, worker, or communal control.

Contaminated Water Requires National Public Health Action

By Drs. Jill Stein and Margaret Flowers for TruthOut. Most people in the United States know about the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in March 1979. Although the official reports stated that an "insignificant" amount of radiation was released (this understatement has since been refuted), it is called "America's worst nuclear accident." Very few people know about the actual worst nuclear accident in the United States, which happened three months later in Church Rock, New Mexico. Perhaps this is because it mostly impacted people of the Navajo (Diné) Nation. On July 16, 1979, the wall of a tailings pond for a uranium mill broke open and released 93 million gallons of radioactive waste into the Arroyo Pipeline, a tributary to the Puerco River. The waste traveled 80 miles down the Puerco River into Arizona. Not only is it amazing that this spill was not reported in the media, but it is also remarkable that the governor of New Mexico refused to issue a state of emergency.

Private Companies Making Killing In Justice System

By Brandon Weber for The Progressive - Private corporations make money at almost every step of our justice and prison systems, from processing fines to monitoring ankle bracelets and drug testing. And they make a lot of it. The group In the Public Interest(ITPI), has just compiled a list. Sweetheart contracts with state and federal governments, and with the private companies who now own 20 percent of federal prisons across the United States, have opened up a whole new areas of taxpayer-funded profit-making.

Teachers, Parents And Students Hold Coloring Contest To Expose Crime

By Carolyn Leith for Living in Dialogue - Back in September, parents were blindsided when Seattle Public Schools (SPS) proposed staff cuts at “25 or something” schools across the district. Emergency meetings were held, letters were sent to the school board, but none of these efforts seemed to make a difference. The district had made up its mind. This is when Shawna Murphy and I decided to create our own advocacy group called Teacher Retention Advocate Parents or TRAP. We staged a spoofy bake sale – dubbed the Half-Baked Bake Sale – at district headquarters.

Christy’s Emergency Manager Dismantling Democracy

By Glen Ford for Black Agenda Report - After a state-appointed emergency financial manager poisoned the people of Flint, Michigan, with tainted water, you’d expect that other governors would think twice before tampering with the water supplies of poor cities. But, you’d be wrong. New Jersey Governor Chris Christy last year put Atlantic City under an emergency financial manager, and gave him a year to slash the ailing gambling town’s budget and prepare a full report. Kevin Lavin is a corporate turnaround expert with an international consulting firm.

India: Mass Protests Against College Privatization

By Express Web Desk for The Indian Express. New Delhi, India - Ever since news broke out about the non-National Eligibility Test (NET) fellowship being discontinued for research scholars, students across universities have risen up in protest. The Occupy UGC protest is on for over two months now and a lot of students across India is participating in the agitation. The Media Collective group has created the video humorously explaining how the move will affect the economically weaker students and ‘how the government is planning to put India’s education sector on sale.’

Private Companies Fly Drones In War Zones

By Corp Watch for Op Ed News. U.S. Air Force officials have begun to hire private companies to fly drone aircraft operating over Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The unprecedented move is in response to demands from the Obama administration to dramatically expand the drone war just as the Pentagon faces a critical shortage of military pilots. As a result, civilian pilots will directly participate in military operations for the first time since the drone wars began about a decade ago. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Air Force signed contracts with two private companies in 2015 to provide enough pilots to fly two "combat air patrols" or 24-hour surveillance flights that would involve as many as eight MQ-9 Reaper drones per day.

Educators Challenge Pearson’s Corporate Take-Over

By Lee Stewart for Popular Resistance. Minneapolis, MN - On Saturday afternoon (Nov. 21) as the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) gathered in Minneapolis, Minnesota for their annual convention, the floor of Exhibit Hall erupted in protest. Dozens of teachers and education professors occupied the space for over 30 mins to protest British-based publishing giant Pearson’s influence on public education in America. One particular issue that was held up at the protest was Pearson’s contribution to shaping the Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA). The edTPA is a standardized test for teachers administered by Pearson in many states for teacher certification. The test has been marketed as a way to professionalize teaching, but it’s riddled with problems.

Newsletter: Rigged Trade Negotiations Struggle

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. For those concerned about corporate power vs. democracy; jobs, the environment, healthcare, food, water, energy, regulation of banks and more – all eyes were on Atlanta this week where 12 nations were negotiating the massive trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The Atlanta meetings come after more than five years of secret negotiations, secret to the public, media and elected representatives but not to transnational corporations. No matter how Atlanta turns out, we are winning and can finish the job. Our goal: end corporate rigged trade and force governments to re-make trade with a goal of putting people and planet first and doing so by negotiating agreements with transparency so the people can participate.

Rebelling Against Water Privatization And Winning

By Tom Lawson in Occupy.com. Private companies have been working to make a profit from water since the 1600s, when the first water companies were established in England and Wales. The first wave of water privatization occurred in the 1800s, and by the mid- to late-19th century, privately owned water utilities were common in Europe, the United States and Latin America, and began to appear in Africa and Asia. But the privatization flurry faded, and throughout much of the 20th century water was largely a publicly controlled resource. In the U.S., for example, just 30% of piped water systems were privately owned in 1924, dropping from 60% in 1850. It wasn't until the late 1980s that the idea of private companies managing water re-emerged on a large scale.

Teachers’ Union Protests Eli Broad’s Support Of Charter Schools

By Adrienne Bankert in ABC7 - A crowd of protesters with United Teachers Los Angeles held a rally outside The Broad on the museum's opening day Sunday. Hundreds of parents, teachers and students clad in red T-shirts held up signs and chanted outside the new contemporary art museum, which opened its doors to the public Sunday morning. The protesters said they are not against the museum but are against Eli Broad's reported plan to try to expand charter schools throughout the city of Los Angeles. Broad reportedly plans to put between half a billion and a billion dollars into unregulated, non-union charter schools, that could draw half of the district's students. The teachers' union fears these schools would not be accountable to the public, would cherry-pick their students, and keep parents from being able to interact with teachers.
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