In
our society, Public Education is the “canary in the coal mine”
When our schools are in trouble
it is an indicator of much larger systemic problems. Without free quality
education our society will erode further into chaos much like the late 19th
century when monopolies were allowed to flourish and government was rife
with corruption. Allowing the most important institution in America, our
public education, to crumble creates an uneducated workforce that would
be satisfied with abundant low-wage service jobs that a consumer economy
generates. Private companies are targeting public school non-instructional
services which is the first step for complete district take-over. One only
needs to look at health care to see the results of deregulation and privatization.
Millions are without adequate health care.
The term “privatization”
typically refers to shifting the delivery of services performed by public
employees to private businesses. Privatization/outsourcing, is a multi-billion
dollar a year business in the United States. Large businesses have put their
employees who built their lucrative businesses on the street. It is an abomination
that affects the very core of the American worker. If not for those employees
that worked hard to make them successful, the company would be nowhere.
Shame on them!
With public schools being hit by budget restraints nationally, districts
feel compelled to seek alternative ways to balance their budgets. Regrettably
they are looking at privatizing/outsourcing non-instructional services like
transportation, custodial, maintenance, food service, etc. Funneling lucrative
contracts to the private sector radically changes the fundamental role of
a district, which is to serve the taxpayers who fund the services. Instead,
a profit-oriented corporate bottom line is often fed at the expense of the
public.
Public education has seen a growth in private sector involvement on several other fronts. One is emergence of an “education industry” composed of private companies that take over administrative and teaching functions for entire schools and school districts. Another is steady growth of corporate commercial activities within public schools, i.e. sales, advertising and market research activities. Still another is the voucher movement, which threatens to drain resources from public schools to subsidize private schools.
“Simple logic should tell us it’s impossible for the private sector to deliver the same service for less and make a profit as well,” says Ellen J. Dannin, a law professor at the California Western School of Law, in her study, A White Paper on Privatization. “It’s a popular myth that the private sector can feed the multitudes with a few loaves and fish. In fact, there are less of miracles done with loaves and fishes and more magic done with smoke and mirrors.” ( White Paper on Privatization, Ellen J. Dannin, Professor of Law )
Privatization Problems around the Country
Control Building Services of Secaucus, New Jersey failed to adequately conduct a backgroud check of it's employees. 75% of the contractor's employees did not have background checks on file.
Hartland Michigan. High staff turnover. In the first six months after hiring Grand Rapids Building Services, 15 of the 36 custodians (or 42 percent) placed by the private company were no longer working in the district. Six additional employees didn’t make it past the probationary period. Unsanitary conditions in various school facilities, including classrooms, restrooms and cafeterias. In some instances, privatized employees apparently took weeks—or even months—to clean school property.
Oscoda schools already have privatized their substitute teachers. We now all work for a company called PCMI West. We are the company's employees--the company pays us and it is responsible for ensuring subs are in the classrooms. And let me tell you, the system is not working and Oscoda area schools are not getting their money's worth from this company. Even well into September, PCMI's system is only half up and running. Substitute teachers are being called by PCMI's automated system to sub for sick bus drivers--which, of course, they cannot legally do unless they happen to have the required license and training. Last week, one Oscoda school was left a substitute short which was not discovered until the morning the substitute was needed. According to one school secretary, the new system has "tripled" paperwork relating to substitutes. And, it is a pain for the folks who substitute as well. Sometimes the PSMI automated system calls a substitute over and over and over--hanging up on the substitute each and every time. One weekend, a substitute teacher received 26 hang-up calls from the PCMI automated system.
In the case of substitute teachers--privatization totally has failed. Whatever money Oscoda schools managed to save by outsourcing its subs to PCMI West surely is not enough to overcome the aggravation felt both by school employees and by the substitutes.
A story shared from one of our members that experienced privatization in Florida, a Right to Work state. "Don, I wanted to tell you about our experience with PRIVATIZATION. After I had gotten married we moved to Florida for a better life. My husband went through the police academy (18 months) and had gotten hired as a Correctional Officer with the state of Florida. He was making very good money at that time plus the benefits were great, he was in the PBA union. After 14 years and 2 children and house payments we were informed that the state prisons were to be turned over to a private company and there was going to be a big cut in wages and very little benefits (that we couldn't afford) also he would have to travel at least an hour away from where he used to work. We could no longer afford to live in Florida. We put our house up for sale and moved back here to Michigan. When the prisons needed help THEY DID NOT send their new hires to the POLICE ACADEMY they took anyone off the street with No training."
Keller School District in Texas contracted with Aramark to run its maintenance department. The district eventually terminated the contract after learning of missing records, broken equipment and financial mismanagement.
The New Orleans School District terminated its contract with AME Services to provide custodial services because of the poor quality of its work and escalating costs. Examples: In a High School "human feces remained in mop sinks and face bowls in the gym area." In a Middle School "countless numbers of bloodied sanitary napkins left for a long period of time."
Lee County Schools, Pennsylvania, terminated its contract with Aramark to provide employee training, supplies and cleaning equipment. School administrators maintained that in-house staff would do a better job because they are held accountable and take more pride in maintaining school buildings.
A former New York state school bus driver for Laidlaw was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography. The ex-driver admitted that he downloaded — from a website offering child pornography — images of children who looked to be 10 to 12 years old engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Another Laidlaw driver did not activate the security alarm system (as required, before exiting the bus), and left a first grade girl sleeping on the bus. The girl, enrolled in Omaha Public Schools, had to be driven home by a stranger she flagged down after she woke up alone.
Fours years into a contract with Chartwells to provide food services at the Higley Unified School District in Arizona, the company had to bring in a new food services director following complaints about the menu, quality of food, and serving time. The school district recently decided to re-bid the service.
During the first year of the Richmond (Virginia) School System's contract with Chartwells to provide food services, the company lost the school district more than $900,000. In addition, the school board learned that the company had overcharged it for numerous food items. The board opted to not renew the one-year contract. According to a school board member, "Chartwells was supposed to be the panacea to all our food service issues. We've been duped, we've been had, we've been hoodwinked, we've been suckered."
Sodexho, which provides food services to the Western Oaks Middle School in Oklahoma City, served meals that had been left in food warmers over the winter holiday break to students returning to school—despite a company policy to empty food warmers daily. Several students became ill as a result.
Carroll School District in Texas brought food services back in-house following a nine-year contractual relationship with Aramark. The decision resulted from continued complaints about food quality and ongoing deficits requiring subsidies from other school district funds. An audit of school district finances revealed that it overpaid Aramark by $80,000.
MEA Launches the Privatization
Complaint Box. In order to balance the one-sided media coverage of privatization,
the MEA has launched the Privatization Complaint Box, a service that allows
school workers to file complaints about the shoddy work done by the privateers
that replaced school employees. MEA receives these complaints often enough
that an effort to collect them in an organized and searchable form is called
for. The complaint box serves as a storehouse of complaints that are provided
to answer media inquiries and to generate statistics to counter those published
by conservative "think tanks." The
complaints can also be used to put the school’s administration on notice
that substandard work is not going unnoticed and that it is being held accountable
for the decision to outsource this work.
File your complaints at: http://www.mymea.org/PrivatizationComplaint/
