HIGHLIGHTS
JUMP: EDUCATION | INFRASTRUCTURE | PUBLIC SERVICES | THE REST
First, the Good News
1) National: Federal employee unions have filed expanded complaints challenging the Trump administration’s illegal shutdown firings, the National Treasury Employees Union reports. “The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) filed a lawsuit Sept. 30 arguing that the administration violated the law by threatening to fire federal workers furloughed due to the shutdown and ordering employees to work unpaid during the shutdown to carry out the mass terminations. The unions are represented by Altshuler Berzon LLP, and Democracy Forward, and Democracy Defenders Fund,” the latter two of which are 501(c)3 nonprofits.”
2) National/Think Tanks: James Baratta reports that according to a new report by the nonprofit Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP), most regions nationwide experienced workforce housing rent increases of 20 percent or more from 2021 to 2025. Of the 94 rental markets PESP analyzed, only five markets saw workforce housing rent increases below 10 percent.” But there’s a caveat to one proposed solution (see Section 5 of the PESP report for recommendations). “The caveat? None of the guidelines are legally binding. The good news is that they ‘can be easily strengthened,’ the report argues. PESP recommends that public pension funds continue to adopt investment standards, and build upon them by adding limitations for rent increases, dissuading asset managers from acquiring properties marketed to low-income tenants, preventing corporate landlords from inflating rents they already own past 3 percent annually, and providing immediate relief to tenants in workforce housing whose rents have been artificially inflated.”
3) National: Underground Infrastructure reports that “the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee has passed bipartisan legislation to enhance the safety and security of U.S. pipeline infrastructure, including provisions to strengthen leak detection and cybersecurity protections.”
4) California: Shasta County supervisors have approved naloxone vending machines. “‘It is unethical to allow a narrow focus on the harms of drug use to overshadow an opportunity to save human lives,’ reads a National Institutes of Health article about the objections to take-home naloxone. (…) Naloxone is the medicine used to rapidly reverse an opioid overdose. According to the National Institutes of Health, ‘It attaches to opioid receptors and reverses and blocks the effects of other opioids,’ like heroin, fentanyl and morphine.”
5) Mississippi: Writing in Mississippi Today, Bradley Roberson says education is a public good, not a consumer product. “Notably, eight of the 19 districts rated D, F or not rated at all are charter schools. Our state’s national ranking for K–12 achievement has climbed from 50th to 16th, and Mississippi now leads the nation in early literacy gains and fourth-grade reading growth. These results were not achieved through privatization or vouchers. They were achieved through focus, consistency and intentionality by teachers and administrators across our state.”
6) Washington: Local government still works, and your votes keep it going, says Cary Bozeman in the Kitsap Sun. “Today the federal government is in shutdown and the two parties don’t seem to be willing to work together or find some areas of compromise in order to re-open our government.” But in the midst of all this, “local governments impact our lives in so many ways. They pave our streets, provide water, sewer and utilities to our homes. They send a medic unit if someone in our family is in need of emergency care, they keep us safe, they provide playfields and parks for children and adults who want to play and exercise, and maybe even play a game of pickle ball. Cities and county officials work together to solve regional challenges in order to meet the demands put on us by our population growth.”
7) National: Writing in The Baffler, Tisya Mavuram reviews a new book on the politics of school boards, (Why School Boards Matter: Reclaiming the Heart of American Education and Democracy by Scott R. Levy) and on the paralytic impact they are having on education. Mavuram says that Levy’s solution—insulating school boards from politics—is unworkable and unwise. “One of the dangerously politicized factions that Levy—perhaps unsurprisingly—deems a threat is teachers’ unions.”
Mavuram also reviews Randi Weingarten’s Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy. In a case in West Virginia, Weingarten writes, “When the AFT, the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union, stepped in, they piloted reforms based on the community schools model, a vision of public schools as institutions where ‘schools create a welcoming and safe community for all students by providing wraparound services students, families, and communities need to thrive.’”
8) National: Privatization critic Jennifer Berkshire was interviewed by Doug Henwood on his Behind the News show. Berkshire: “These like Hogwarts looking academies with green playing fields and lots of ivy. You know, that isn’t what private school looks like for most people. And the fastest growing parts of the market are basically low end religious schools, fly-by-night schools that pop up in a Florida strip mall.” [Audio, at 27:00 into the program]
9) Colorado: “This ‘public Christian school’ opened quietly in Colorado. Now there could be a legal fight,” Chalkbeat Colorado, a nonprofit 501(c)3 reports. “The school, called Riverstone Academy, opened quietly in southern Colorado this August, just months after a tie at the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the nation’s first religious charter school from opening in Oklahoma. (…) But Colorado’s constitution requires that public schools be nonsectarian — meaning not religious — and the Colorado Department of Education is pushing back. Department officials have suggested that Riverstone students may not be eligible for public funding. The school’s backers said they are “alarmed at the threat” and that not funding the school would amount to religious discrimination.”
10) Florida: A new charter school is coming to Jacksonville’s Northside amid declining public school enrollment. “The city gave the green light for construction by approving a $10.4 million permit. The Summit Construction Management Group, a company based in Orlando, is building the school. The school is being funded through a tax-exempt bond, expected to close in Fall 2025. That funding is supported by LENDonate, a platform that helps nonprofits raise money from individuals who want to lend or donate to community projects. This comes as Duval County Public Schools are facing both declining enrollment and budget challenges.”
11) Mississippi: Writing in the Clarion Ledger, Louise Smith, 2023 Mississippi Teacher of the Year and 2024 NEA Foundation Horace Mann Award Winner, says vouchers, or “school choice,” would hurt Mississippi’s educational success. “Mississippi’s recent gains were not driven by privatization. The state directs a very small percentage of K-12 funding to private programs. Our progress stems from intentional public investments in early literacy, PreK expansion, teacher support, accountability, and local district innovations. Yet Mississippi has chronically underfunded its schools. (…) We cannot afford to carve public money away from schools already asked to do more with less.”
12) Oklahoma: Jennifer Smith Richards, of ProPublica (a nonprofit newsroom), reports on “ground zero in the conservative quest for more patriotic and Christian public schools.” ProPublica “has reported that Education Secretary Linda McMahon has brought in a team of strategists who are working to radically shift how children will learn in America, even as they carry out the ‘final mission’ to shut down the federal agency. Some of those strategists have spoken of their desire to dismantle public education. Others hope to push it in the same direction as Oklahoma. Walters tapped the president of The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that published Project 2025 and the blueprints that preceded it, to help rewrite Oklahoma’s social studies standards.” AlterNet’s Adam Lynch reports that “The Oklahoma State Board of Education plans to review, and possibly dismantle, social studies academic standards approved during the tenure of controversial former state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters. The Oklahoman reports ‘the controversy surrounding the standards started with how they were approved.’”
13) Pennsylvania: The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that a charter school “roiled by upheaval and turnover” has had its renewal placed on hold. “The Inquirer spoke to and reviewed testimony from more than a dozen parents and current and former Northwood staff. Nearly everyone interviewed requested anonymity for fear of reprisal; some who spoke out at meetings have received cease-and-desist letters threatening litigation from a consultant who provides human resources services to Northwood.”
14) National/Think Tanks: Government contractors, tobacco companies, and tech interests such as Meta and Apple, reports Fortune are among those funding the demolition of the White House. Two of the companies were facing federal investigations or enforcement actions that were dropped by the administration.
15) National: “The Department of Homeland Security is funneling $10 billion through the Navy to help facilitate the construction of a sprawling network of migrant detention centers across the US in an arrangement aimed at getting the centers built faster, according to sources and federal contracting documents,” CNN reports. “Construction on some of the facilities is set to begin as soon as next month, one of the sources familiar with the project told CNN. It’s the latest example of the Trump administration leveraging the US military to support its immigration enforcement efforts. (…) The contracting program, which has not been previously reported, is a joint effort between DHS and the Defense Department and leans on the Navy’s Supply Systems Command as a contracting arm to hire companies for construction and maintenance of the detention facilities.” Here is the contract notice.
16) National: The U.S. Department of the Interior has reported on where it is planning to lay off 2,000 employees, “including major reductions to the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Geological Survey and the Office of the Secretary, according to newly filed court documents. The disclosure—which details anticipated cuts across Interior’s individual agencies, at a level not previously shared—was submitted Monday by the Justice Department to comply with an order issued by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California late Friday night.”
Government Executive reports that Anthony Lee, an employee at the Food and Drug Administration and president for National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 282, said “I think it’s important that we win in the court of public opinion, and the more people we can get out to events like this, the better that the public can understand what’s at stake. The desired impact is to get the public engaged in their democracy to push back on what’s been happening, which is the dismantling of our government institutions and our public services.”
17) National: Trump’s TVA nominees say ‘no’ to privatizing federal utility, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. “I’ve experienced both public utility and investor-owned utility, and I think there’s absolutely no reason to do anything different here.” Appalachian Voices, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, has urged TVA board nominees to commit to customer protections.
18) New York: Sophie Shepherd, a Brooklyn-based writer and an organizer with Planet Over Profit (POP), a youth-led climate justice group, writes about New York’s Bold Fight for Public Power. “Public power advocates oppose the new nuclear power plant, calling it a distraction from the renewable goals signed into law. ‘Instead of embracing public power, Kathy Hochul is pushing an energy plan written by tech billionaires, gas utility CEOs, and Donald Trump,’ Paulson told me via email. ‘She is publicly calling for an economy built around energy-guzzling, job-killing AI data centers, and fast tracking the Williams NESE Pipeline, which may as well be called the Trump-Hochul pipeline, all of which make energy even less affordable for New Yorkers.’ (…) This year, over 4,500 people were estimated to be living on the streets and subways, a two-decade high.”
19) New York: The New York Times has a report on the slow death of the public bench in New York City. “Often referred to as hostile or defensive architecture, these design changes have entire Instagram accounts and Reddit forums dedicated to documenting their rise. Though people experiencing street homelessness are the main target, legions of New Yorkers are annoyed. Some—especially older New Yorkers—are angry. (…) Many public spaces also now have a stark lack of seating. In the $1.6 billion Moynihan Train Hall, for example, passengers sit on the floor while waiting for the Amtrak and the Long Island Rail Road.”
20) International/United Kingdom: Thames Water, the giant corporation to which southeast England’s water system was privatized during the privatization mania under Thatcher, has been ranked as the worst supplier in England. “Thames is on the brink of collapse as the company struggles to secure a deal to write off its debt and secure its future. It has been battling huge debts built up over two decades by owners who have been criticized for paying out dividends without investing enough in its leaking pipes and malfunctioning treatment works.”
21) National: “States have found more than 100 uses for the technology according to a recent survey,” Route Fifty reports. “and while there might be excitement and momentum for its continued use, plenty of pitfalls lie ahead. (…) But there is evidence that state CIOs want to understand generative AI and govern its use, especially among employees. NASCIO’s CIO survey found that most states have implemented responsible use guidelines and have taken inventory of its uses in agencies and applications. More than 80% have also created advisory committees or task forces. But the biggest challenge state leaders will face in the coming years around generative AI is adoption, Darmon said, especially among employees who may be reluctant to embrace new technology.”
22) National: Continuing the federal guarantee is a must for GSE privatization, says a panel at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Annual Convention & Expo in Las Vegas. “Jones, a previous MBA chairman, stressed that the final outcome should make certain mortgage rates don’t rise substantially. There also needs to be a ‘bright line’ between the primary and secondary markets so that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac don’t cross over into lender territory, he added.”
23) National: The Federal Trade Commission’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has closed down due to a lack of funding. Aside from the impact of this evisceration of transparency, ITPI’s Jeff Hagan writes, “is the loss of vast collections of data used by scientists and researchers in government, academia, the private sector, the media, and the general public. In February, nearly 8,000 webpages, including those with open access data, were removed during a purge driven by President Trump’s orders targeting diversity initiatives and ‘gender ideology.’ This is public data that had been broadly available to the public.”
24) Iowa: “The Iowa DOGE task force Gov. Kim Reynolds appointed unveiled its report of ways to potentially cut state and local government and increase efficiency, greasing the wheel to slash property taxes,” the Iowa Press-Citizen reports. “But some of those proposals are already meeting resistance. Reynolds didn’t embrace, for example, proposals to change the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System and said the state already has some form of merit pay for teachers, two of DOGE’s more controversial ideas. Unions representing public sector employees resoundingly condemned those proposals, and the idea of altering IPERS drew swift bipartisan opposition.”
25) Minnesota: What is contract and fraud monitoring all about, anyway? Julie Blaha, Minnesota’s state auditor, takes us to school. “Finally, where does the public fit in? You — the people who fund and rely on government — are the owners of the team. You’re right to expect vigilance in preventing fraud. But I hope you’ll also push us to look beyond refs and coaches and focus on the players — and the systems and rules they’re working under. That’s where the real game is won or lost.”
26) Washington: In an opinion piece in The Seattle Times, Carmen Rivera and Mark Coleman say privatizing electronic home monitoring would be disastrous for Renton. “Renton’s municipal court would then offer cheaper, privatized EHM options. However, privatized monitoring services lack accountability or transparency. Their bottom line is profit. A client told a Renton EHM officer that one private service purchased its EHM anklets on online retailer Alibaba, and the wearers could remove them. When profit drives the mission, people become numbers, and oversight disappears. The integrity and care of public service vanish the moment we give responsibility to a contractor whose incentive is efficiency at the expense of effectiveness. Eliminating Renton’s in-house EHM program is more than a budgetary and moral decision. Replacing a functioning public program with private for-profit vendors not only fails to save money in the long term but also abandons our values.”
27) National: The U.S. army is tapping private equity groups to help fund a $150 billion revamp.
28) National: Does the private model work? Company CFOs see “‘a quiet alarm bell going off’: Job-based family coverage hits $27K annually. Premium increases are outpacing wage growth and general inflation at a time of intense focus on healthcare affordability, according to new research from KFF.”
29) Pennsylvania: Privatization of the assets of Chester’s water system moves ahead. “The Chester receiver and the Chester retirees group have reached a settlement, opening the door to allow for-profit entities to bid on the city’s water systems. However, Receiver Vijay Kapoor says one thing has not changed: Whoever were to emerge victorious at the end of this process must keep the water systems in public hands. (…) The Chester Water Authority had its own perspective on the matter. ‘We were right,’ CWA solicitor Francis Catania said. ‘We always knew all along that we would wind up here. We always knew that this would happen and we don’t appreciate (Kapoor) calling us names at the MFRAC meetings. He owes us an apology. We predicted it and it happened. We told you this was going to happen and it did. We’re the least surprised of anybody.’”
30) Think Tanks: Chris Hedges interviewed Whitney Webb on the privatization of the military and security sectors. [Video, about 45 minutes]