HIGHLIGHTS
JUMP: EDUCATION | INFRASTRUCTURE | PUBLIC SERVICES | THE REST
First, the Good News
1) National: A federal judge has ordered “the Trump administration to immediately halt the mass firing of federal employees initiated since the government has been shut down,” siding with AFGE and AFSCME. “The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGFE) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) filed a lawsuit Sept. 30 asserting that the Office of Management and Budget, through its Director Russ Vought, violated the law by threatening to engage in the mass firing of federal workers during a shutdown. The lawsuit also names as defendants the Office of Personnel Management and its Director Scott Kupor, which issued unlawful and unprecedented instructions that federal employees may perform work during the federal government shutdown in order to carry out mass RIFs, in addition to the federal agencies implementing these unlawful directives. On Oct. 4, the unions filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to block the threatened terminations and followed that with a supplemental motion for immediate relief once the layoffs started on Oct. 10.”
On Friday, Judge Illston extended the order. “At an emergency hearing in San Francisco, Judge Susan Illston expanded the temporary restraining order barring reductions in force (RIFs) to also cover employees represented by the National Federation of Federal Employees, the Service Employees International Union, and the National Association of Government Employees. Previously, only members of the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the initial plaintiffs in the lawsuit, were explicitly shielded from reductions in force during the shutdown.”
2) National: Military Times reports that “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth decided to reverse course on the idea to privatize the process that moves service members’ household goods. Instead, he directed officials to improve the current program, which will remain in place for at least three years, according to an advisory sent Wednesday to the military services and personal property shipping offices, as well as companies previously approved to move troops and families under the “tender of service” program, the DOD’s legacy system for managing moves.”
3) California: Kern County residents are celebrating the opening of a new composting facility. “The Shafter-Wasco Compost Facility, located on Scofield Avenue adjacent to the Shafter-Wasco landfill, was completed in September, following a construction period that began in April. It is designed to divert 100,000 tons of organic waste from landfills annually, transforming it into high-quality compost to support local agriculture. The site will not only enhance soil health but also reduce groundwater use and emissions of methane and other air pollutants. It accepts both residential and commercial materials, including grass clippings, leaves, tree trimmings, manure, and food waste.”
4) Oklahoma: Oklahoma Watch asks “Are Oklahoma prisons extensively privatized?” Their answer? “No. In July 2025, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections purchased the last privately owned prison operating in the state, officially bringing all of Oklahoma’s correctional operations under public management. The $312 million acquisition followed contract negotiations with the GEO Group in which the former owners requested an additional $3 million despite already having received a $6.8 million increase in funding since 2020 without any operations improvements.”
5) Pennsylvania: The Shapiro Administration has announced an historic $547.1 million investment across 23 counties to ensure Pennsylvanians have clean drinking water and safe water infrastructure. It’s the largest single-round award in PENNVEST history. (…) With the national focus on strengthening infrastructure through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), PENNVEST has more capacity than ever to provide cost-effective financing for critical water quality projects.”
6) International/United Kingdom: Women have won a major equal pay victory at Birmingham City Council. “It means women delivering essential services to the city, in roles such as teaching assistants, catering staff and care workers, will receive significant amounts of money they are owed and deserve. The employees will be compensated for wages they missed out on as a result of being underpaid for many years, when compared to male colleagues doing work of equal value.” UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea says “this victory for low-paid women will resonate far beyond Birmingham. It sends a powerful message that equality at work is not optional, it’s a fundamental right. It’s a reminder that when women stand together to demand fairness, real change can happen.”
7) National: Data is disappearing from federal database–and it’s having a very broad impact. For one perspective, listen to the interview with Cara Brumfield on Erasing Federal Data on FAIR’s CounterSpin. Brumfield is vice president for housing and income security at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. [Audio, about 15 minutes].
8) California: Governor Newsom’s veto stalls California’s push to curb charter school fraud, EdSource reports. “Six years after the operators of A3 charter schools were indicted for stealing more than $400 million in public funds, lawmakers had hoped to pass sweeping reforms aimed at preventing similar schemes. In his veto message, Newsom said the bill is too costly and overlooks some of the recommendations by a task force convened to investigate systemic weaknesses exploited by A3 and operators of other nonclassroom-based [partially or entirely online, independent study or homeschool] charters.” EdSource reports that “Leon Schorr, who led the A3 charter school investigation as assistant chief of the San Diego District Attorney’s Special Operations Division, said California needs a dedicated education finance watchdog, either as an independent agency or housed within the state Attorney General’s Office. ‘No (district attorney’s) offices, San Diego included, have the bandwidth to keep up with all the complaints we get,’ Schorr said.”
9) Florida: The Hillsborough School District is asking for a court-ordered injunction to force Walton Academy to close. “Safety concerns at Walton Academy were first flagged last spring, according to the district. Officials say issues have continued to mount since then. It’s why the board voted on Tuesday to terminate the charter of the school, which has served Tampa students for 21 years, and relocate its 118 students. The small charter school with a focus on performing arts has faced scrutiny in the past over management, academic performance, and safety compliance.”
10) North Carolina: EdNC reports that “a Guilford County charter school is facing closure less than two months after opening its doors to students. Triad International Studies Academy (TISA) in High Point had its charter revoked by the Charter Schools Review Board (CSRB) due to under-enrollment on Monday, Oct. 6, the first of the CSRB’s two-day meeting.” The school has until the end of December to close.
11) Ohio: The Columbus Dispatch reports that two in five charter school students in Ohio are chronically absent. This is “nearly 15 percentage points more than the average rate in traditional public schools, new state data shows. According to Ohio Department of Education data, 40% of charter school students are considered chronically absent, and in Franklin County 37.2% of students are considered chronically absent across over 80 schools.”
12) National: In the Public Interest reports that water privatization threats are relentless–and now they’re federal. “Despite notable victories in City Halls and ballot boxes, the push to privatize public water and sewer systems remains steady, as we pointed out in our 2024 report, Water Wars in Pennsylvania: How Corporations Play the Long Game. Private water interests work their way around and through state legislation, state utility and service commissions, and local regulations to provide the most favorable conditions to expand their footprint. And now they’re working it at the federal level. The Clean Water SRF Parity Act of 2025 would let large for-profit wastewater corporations take funding away from local and small wastewater systems by allowing these corporations access to the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF). In the Public Interest is among the more than 100 organizations that have signed on to a letter urging the rejection of the legislation. Organizations have until Monday, October 20, 2025, to add their names to the list.”
13) National: USA Today reports that “the new budget proposal from President Donald Trump would reduce the budget for the nation’s national parks, monuments, historic sites, seashores and trails by nearly 25% and hand over many of those to the states. The proposal suggests cutting more than $1.2 billion from the $4.8 billion park service budget. It quickly sparked outrage from leaders of organizations devoted to national parks and recreation lands, who had already voiced concern about the staff cuts ordered by the Department of Governmental Efficiency and other plans raised by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.”
Meanwhile, the Commercial Observer reports on “Your local park … brought to you by Ye Olde Global Mega Corp. Private real estate development is driving 67 percent of new park and greenway creation in 10 major U.S. cities, while direct city purchases account for only 5 percent, according to a new report from the nonprofit Trust for Public Land (TPL). That’s a lot of private investment in U.S. parkland, which hasn’t always been the norm.”
14) New Jersey: South Orange has privatized its water system for $19 million. “Critics argue that the deal will increase costs for homeowners and businesses over the long term—especially for low-income customers—while selling off a “precious public resource” to a for-profit company that is only interested in its own bottom line. The controversial sale required approval from local voters, who cast ballots via a public referendum in the 2024 election. A total of 4,779 people ‘voted ‘yes’ (61.94 percent) and 2,937 voted ‘no’ (38.06 percent).”
15) Utah: Can artificial intelligence get past its power problem? “The evolution of artificial intelligence, which requires massive amounts of energy to function, is forcing government, utilities and tech suppliers to face the question of whether power grids can keep up. (…) Such a rosy view, however, may soon face some harsh tests, assuming trends hold. As AI moves into daily life and tech companies rely more on giant data centers, the energy needs of all that progress are coming into clearer view, with potential hurdles that could influence both the use and reputation of some of the newest tools available to public agencies. ‘While the environmental impacts of AI, especially generative AI, are starting to get a little more air time in mainstream outlets, many people, I think, are still unaware of the scale and the severity of the issue,’ said Leila Doty, privacy and AI analyst for San Jose, Calif., at a recent AI conference.”
16) Vermont: “As Montpelier City Council mulls a multi-million infrastructure project, a familiar consultant rises above the fray,” says VT Digger. “In the meantime, the city is pushing ahead. In order to recruit a developer and apply for the grant, it has signed another contract with consultants White + Burke. Montpelier has already paid White + Burke about $500,000 for prior planning on the same project, and the firm has also consulted on Montpelier’s downtown TIF district, now disbanded, and a public parking garage project, since failed.”
17) National: Writing in The American Prospect, Suzanne Gordon reports on how Veterans Administration cuts are damaging women veterans. “The Trump administration’s cuts to VHA research, teaching, staffing, and in-house care will push more women veterans into the private sector, jeopardizing the targeted services women now receive at the VA. Current Veterans Community Care Program contractors are not required to have any training in military cultural competency or military-related health conditions, like ocular melanoma or MST.”
18) National: The Fayetteville Observer reports that the Defense Department is considering commissary privatization. “Interested retailers would be required to maintain savings for customers, according to a request for information issued by the agency in September. The request is to seek industry input on the potential privatization of 178 commissary locations across the contiguous U.S., Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, which would include Fort Bragg’s two commissaries.”
CityView reports that privatized “commissary shops could come to military installations across the country—including the two at Fort Bragg. (…) What DOD does want is data on whether any company would be interested in taking on the commissaries—and an accompanying $2.4 billion maintenance backlog—while keeping the 23.7% average savings for eligible military shoppers.”
19) National: Appalachian Voices urges senators to probe privatization intent of TVA board nominees. “On Wednesday, Oct. 22, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing to consider nominees for the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors. (…) Trump has proposed selling TVA assets in the past, but the proposal was rejected by Congress during his first term. This year, he declined to propose the sale of TVA assets to private companies in his formal budget proposal to Congress, but is expected to pursue such sales through the TVA board and CEO directly.”
20) North Carolina: State lawmakers again consider privatizing liquor sales. “The state Alcohol Beverage Control Commission handles the oversight for all ABC stores. Some members of the Government Efficiency Committee want to investigate the cost of privatization. Some argue the state would lose money if it were to give up control.”
21) Arkansas: Out-of-staters misrepresent Arkansas voucher data to champion school privatization, says Bobby Howard. “Last week, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute published an article that celebrates Arkansas’s private school voucher program. It offers up data from our state’s annual “Education Freedom Accounts” report as reason to believe that Arkansas families are giving up on public education. In particular, the article celebrates that, ‘Parents are no longer waiting for reforms to arrive or bear fruit.’ There are several problems with the article’s argument, but let’s start with the obvious: Arkansas families are not flocking en masse to public education alternatives.”
22) Florida/National: Anthony Man of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel explains “how a transformative change in charter school rules came back from the dead and became Florida law.”