HIGHLIGHTS
- Redefining “efficiency,” challenging privatization narratives.
- Judge blocks CoreCivic’s ICE detention facility.
- States and local communities prop up private prison profits.
JUMP: EDUCATION | INFRASTRUCTURE | PUBLIC SERVICES | THE REST
First, the Good News
1) National/International: Focus on the Global South has provided a useful summary of a key meeting on “Redefining ‘Efficiency,’ Restoring Equity and Ensuring Accountability: Challenging Narratives of Privatization of Public Services.” They say, “the following is a summary from a strategy meeting on Public Services and Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Mumbai held at the Mumbai Press Club on 22–23 August 2025. The event was jointly organized by Habitat and Livelihoods Welfare Association (HALWA), ACORN, Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA), Focus on the Global South, Question of Cities, Kamgar Sanrakshan Samman Sangh (KSSS), and the Working People’s Coalition (WPC). It brought together activists, researchers, journalists, trade unions, architects, public servants and policy experts to critically examine the privatization of public services in Mumbai.”
Among the topics discussed:
- Public-Private Partnerships in Public Services: Old Antecedents
- Climate Preparedness and Public Action
- Fiscal Dependence
- Selective Development and Deepening Inequality
- The Myth of ‘Efficiency’
- Public Transport
- Water Services
- Urban Commons and Public Space
- The Tasks Ahead
2) National/Kansas: A Federal judge has dismissed CoreCivic’s complaint against the City of Leavenworth over CoreCivic’s desire “to reopen the former jail as an ICE Detention Center. This latest court proceeding is separate from lawsuits from both parties against each other. All of this comes after the city said the company would need a special use permit to run the facility.” The Kansas City Star reports that “the ongoing state court case between the two parties is scheduled for a hearing before the Kansas Court of Appeals on Feb. 10. Crouse’s ruling ensures the temporary injunction will remain in place until then, blocking CoreCivic from accepting detainees under a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, said the company maintains its position that “we should be able to lawfully operate our facility.” But notably, Gustin suggested for the first time in months that CoreCivic may entertain the city’s request and apply for the zoning permit required of all prison and jail operators in Leavenworth.”
3) National/New Book: A “Green New Deal for schools”? Seton Hall Associate Professor David Backer has published a book, As Public as Possible: Radical Finance for America’s Public Schools. “As Public as Possible was inspired by Backer’s time living in Philadelphia, where he observed community members organize and demand extra funds to address toxic levels of lead, mold and asbestos in the schools. This social movement encouraged Backer to begin writing newsletters to learn and help the organizers understand the public schools’ financial systems. (…) In his book, Backer addresses the current financial systems of U.S. public schools and the ongoing dialogue surrounding critical race theory and publicly funded charter schools.”
4) National: In a major victory for federal workers, a federal judge “granted a preliminary injunction finding that the cancellation of collective bargaining rights at United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) was unconstitutional retaliation against American Federation of State County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and AFGE in violation of the First Amendment and was an unlawful exercise of authority. (…) The judge found that the subsequent actions taken against AFSCME and AFGE and their affiliated local unions at USAGM were “clearly retaliatory,” and represented a pattern of First Amendment retaliation by this administration. The judge concluded his oral opinion by finding it was “in the public interest” to restore labor protections to USAGM employees because Voice of America is ‘a voice of democracy.’”
5) Maryland: Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott has signed off on three AFSCME union contracts in an historic moment for city labor, WBALTV reports. “The new contracts follow the deaths of two solid waste workers. ‘Each and every day, these members and those out there doing the work right now show up and deliver for the people of Baltimore City. With this agreement, we have finally delivered for them,’ Scott said. Pay hikes range among union members from 12% up to 19%. In addition, the minimum wage for city workers will go up to at least $20 an hour. A new, 25-step salary scale will be phased in over three years. Hazard pay will also go from 15 cents to 75 cents each hour. The meal allowance will nearly double, hitting $15.”
6) Maryland: Bus workers employed by the private, for-profit Durham School Services have ratified a strong three-year contract, averting a strike. “The agreement includes significant wage increases, and other improvements that strengthen quality of life and reflect the essential public service these workers provide to families and students across the region. The strong ratification vote underscores members’ confidence in the bargaining committee and the protections secured through the new contract.” They are represented by Teamsters Local 570.
7) Florida: An administrative judge found that a Hernando private school accepted state vouchers for students 130 miles away, reports Jay Waagmeester of Florida Phoenix. “‘It would be difficult for the undersigned to discern a more obvious and brazen fraudulent scheme than the one undertaken by [Little Wings of Prayer operator] Ms. [Crystal] Harris. This violation, in and of itself, is sufficient to revoke the eligibility of Little Wings to receive scholarship funds,’ Telfer wrote in his recommendation to strip the school’s scholarship qualification.”
8) Florida: “Over the past weekend, the UWF presidential search committee abruptly cut short the winnowing process and announced it was designating a single finalist: former Florida Rep. Manny Diaz Jr., who was approved in May by the UWF Board of Trustees to fill the job on an interim basis. Unless there is a last-minute snag, Diaz will become the latest Republican politician and ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis installed as president of a Florida university. He’ll join the former speaker of the House in charge at New College of Florida, the former GOP majority leader heading up Florida Atlantic University, and DeSantis’ former lieutenant governor, who is president at Florida International University.” The Tributary’s Michael Vasquez reports that “Silagy wasn’t the only one raising questions. In July, UWF’s then-general counsel, Susan Woolf, objected to the university’s plan to hire a DeSantis-linked law firm to assist with the presidential search. Woolf emailed the entire UWF board of trustees—warning that the law firm was unnecessary, and unqualified.”
9) Maryland: Gov. Moore opens rental support programs to support community schools students and families. “Moore signed Community Schools Rental Assistance Program into law last year, with the Democratic governor touting the measure as a boon to children’s growth and development and as a means to prevent homelessness. ‘CSRAP will help vulnerable students and their families threatened with housing instability keep a roof over their heads,’ Moore said. ‘This is a collaborative, interagency initiative, that brings together housing supports, educators and community partners in order to bolster our administration’s mission of ending child poverty.’ Distributed by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, CSRAP funds can go toward past due rent, late fees, eviction court fees, moving costs, utilities and first month’s rent, among other housing-related costs.”
See also the California Teachers Association’s “Our Union’s Fight for Community Schools: Landmark study shows improved student learning and well-being in just one year.”
10) Missouri: KOMU News reports on what impact charter schools would have on Columbia. [Video, about 5 minutes]. “The establishment of a charter school would affect local taxes. With two organizations planning to start a school.” Meanwhile, “a downtown St. Louis charter school has been ordered to stop in-person classes immediately after a safety audit uncovered major security and supervision failures,” Fox2Now reports.
11) Missouri: The Webster Groves School District is outsourcing its before- and after-school care program. “Students can also ‘drop in’ any day for a fixed price of $50, and parents can purchase a 10-day “drop in” punch card for $450. Discounts are available for siblings, military families, free/reduced lunch students and children of school staff.”
12) Texas: Houston Public Media reports that Texas is letting families get more voucher dollars for pre-K but has rejected stronger accountability. “Public education advocates wanted more information they could use to analyze outcomes of the program, including the disclosure of people who donate to it, the number of private school spots available by grade and the amount of money the state recovers from ineligible expenses. Some advocates also called for private schools to report their students’ graduation rates, academic growth and postsecondary readiness. But in the final rules, the comptroller’s office declined the suggestions and said it would only comply with the reporting and auditing requirements as outlined in state law.”
13) National: KJZZ’s The Show reports that Trump’s choice to lead the Bureau of Land Management has a long history of promoting the privatization of public lands. “The new nominee is former New Mexico Republican Rep. Stevan Pearce. If confirmed, Pearce will have a lot of influence on public lands in the West. For a look at his resume, and what it suggests about how he might lead the Bureau, Wyoming Public Radio’s Hanna Merzbach joined The Show.” [Text and audio (8 minutes)]
14) National: Privatized military housing is making service members and their families sick at alarming rates, a survey has found. “The Change the Air Foundation recently conducted the Safe Military Housing Survey—one of the most comprehensive efforts yet to collect data the Defense Department has never been able to track accurately. The survey was designed to answer questions previous studies had overlooked and to provide Congress and the Pentagon with better data on what families across all branches and ranks are actually experiencing in military housing.”
15) National/California: The Los Angeles Times reports that crumbling infrastructure has forced the closure of a low-security prison in San Pedro. “Conditions at the Federal Correctional Institution Terminal Island, which houses nearly 1,000 inmates, have been a years-long problem. An assessment conducted last year by an architectural and engineering firm identified more than $110 million in critical repairs needed at the prison over the next 20 years.”
16) California: Water issues continue to concern Monterey Peninsula residents. “What people think about that alternate water supply, specifically a desalination plant, often tells you how they perceive Cal Am. The company continues to pursue a pricey, controversial desalination plant, even though lower-cost recycled water has so far shown enough promise to justify lifting the cease-and-desist order. The Monterey Peninsula Water Management District – an antagonist to Cal Am in the storyline, with current efforts including a public takeover of the private company – has asked the State Water Board to lift the cease-and-desist order.”
17) National: The American Prospect, in partnership with the Center on Media and Democracy, has reported on how state and local contracts prop up for-profit prisons. “But while much of the rapid growth of both GEO and CoreCivic is tied to Trump’s immigration detention policies, these companies also rely on existing lucrative revenue streams from state and local communities. Whether it’s Vermont shipping prisoners to a CoreCivic facility in Mississippi or California using a historic LGBT gathering space for a GEO Group re-entry facility in San Francisco, a Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) review reveals that the architecture the Trump administration is using for its broad-based crackdown on immigrants relies on a pre-existing infrastructure: a privatized prison system built with the support of both political parties, much of it developed and implemented at the local level.”
18) National: A Reveal news podcast tells us how in rural America, public radio saves lives. “KYUK is small, scrappy, and bilingual. It broadcasts in English and Yugtun, the language of an Indigenous population that lives in villages along two massive rivers. The station airs NPR content, but also high school basketball games, local call-in talk shows, and even a show hosted by the volunteer search and rescue team, answering listeners’ questions about ice conditions and safety. The station is a lifeline for this unique region.”
19) National: “The EPA Approved a New PFAS Pesticide—Will It Show Up in Your Produce?” The Washington Post reports. “Advocacy groups were quick to denounce the new approval and point to findings of the potential dangers of this new ingredient.
“To approve more PFAS pesticides amid the growing awareness of the serious, long-term dangers from these forever chemicals is absurdly shortsighted,” Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity, shared in a statement, noting that this is actually the second PFAS pesticide approved under the current Trump administration, which just approved cyclobutrifluram two weeks prior. ‘The undeniable reality is that the Trump administration is knowingly putting the nation’s children at greater risk of developing serious reproductive and liver harms for generations to come.’”
20) National/Michigan: Michigan Public Radio reports that in Michigan detention centers, immigrants are pushing for freedom through habeas corpus filings. “Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that allows a person to challenge their detention in front of a judge. But in July, the Trump administration started keeping detained immigrants without legal status in federal custody by denying them bond hearings where they could ask to be released while the legal case against them plays out. This week, a federal judge in California ruled that the Trump administration’s prolonged detention of migrants and their denial of bond hearings is illegal. In Michigan, hundreds of immigrants in detention facilities have followed the lead of those in California, filing their own federal lawsuits to challenge the policy.”
21) Indiana: Prescription for Healthcare, a podcast collaboration between the WFHB Local News and Medicare for All Indiana interviewed Rose Roach on “How to De-Privatize Indiana’s Medicaid Program.” Roach is the National Coordinator for the Labor Campaign for Single Payer and Chair of Healthcare For All Minnesota. “The way we’re thinking about this in Minnesota is that we’re working to remove the private insurers from our public health programs, and that means Medicaid. We have known for a long, long time that private insurers, be they for-profit or non-profit, have significantly higher administrative costs than a streamlined public health program does. We know that because Minnesota’s Medicaid program operated at a 4 to 5% administrative cost before they privatized.” [Audio, about 15 minutes]
22) Minnesota/National: Unicorn Riot reports that “Local ‘Participating Agencies’ Expand ICE Links in Minnesota as Counties Profit from Immigrant Detentions.” Dan Feidt writes, “Across 40 states in the country, as of November 21, there are 1,189 Memorandums of Agreement. Since May, the program has grown incrementally in Minnesota. Sherburne County joined the ‘Jail Enforcement Model’ in October, and Mille Lacs County joined the ‘Task Force Model’ in June. Kandiyohi County joined the ‘Warrant Service Officer’ model in March; Itasca joined the Task Force program in February; Crow Wing County joined both the Task Force and Warrant Service programs in March, and Cass County joined the Task Force program in February.”
23) National: Writing in Mother Jones, Eamon Whalen reports on his deeply researched investigation of private policing and military contracting. “How a Mercenary Became a Minneapolis Mall Cop: After the George Floyd protests, a former military contractor named Nathan Seabrook brought the war home.” Whalen joined the crew of the Trillbilly Worker’s Party podcast for a fascinating discussion of the subject. [Audio, about an hour and ten minutes]
24) National: The New York Times reports that a year after promising to do so, Trump has released a list of the donors to his transition process. “‘They claimed they were saving taxpayers money, but what they were doing was hiding the ball about who is buying the government,’ said Max Stier, the president of the nonpartisan nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, which promotes best practices in the federal government and runs the Center for Presidential Transition. Last week, that group released a report on the Trump transition that criticized it for ‘significant departures from established norms,’ noting that it started late and relied heavily on a handful of outside think tanks, chiefly the Heritage Foundation and the America First Policy Institute, to develop policy and hire personnel for the new administration.” Among the 46 is Linda McMahon, the entertainment wrestling executive who went on to be appointed education secretary and is presiding over Trump’s efforts to destroy the Department of Education and drive school privatization.