HIGHLIGHTS
JUMP: EDUCATION | INFRASTRUCTURE | PUBLIC SERVICES | THE REST
First, the Good News
1) National: “As with all politics, DOGE is local. We want to know what is happening where you live,” says ITPI Executive Director Donald Cohen.
“Predictably, many states have begun their own version of DOGE—adopting the acronym or variations, if not always the exact name. There is Division of Government Efficiency (Oklahoma), a Delivery of Government Efficiency commission (South Carolina) and committee (Texas), a couple of COGEs (Kansas has a committee, Missouri a commission), and a GOAT—Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency (Wisconsin). All of these promise to be, as Georgia’s declares, “in the spirit of DOGE,”—that is, not just making government run more efficiently, but cutting as much from government as they can get away with. So what is happening in your state, your county, your city, your neighborhood as a result of DOGE cuts? We want to know. Send us a note at info@inthepublicinterest.org. We’ll collect those stories over time so we can more fully understand what DOGE means to communities across the country.” Image above is from Rocky Mountain National Park, where at least a dozen full-time staffers were abruptly fired.
2) National: Well, they finally came out and admitted it. The mask has slipped. For years, the privatization industry has shifted from calling a spade a spade and instead opted for euphemisms like “public-private partnerships,” deregulation, liberalization, outsourcing, marketization, private sector involvement, monetization, buybacks, asset sales, contracting out, etc. etc. Now here comes an industry potentate spelling out why:
“That word again. Nothing is more radical than the Musk-endorsed idea of privatizing Social Security. Right now, it’s deeply unpopular. That is why influential BlackRock CEO Larry Fink cautioned that no one should use the word privatization when discussing putting even part of the $2.7 trillion Social Security trust fund money into Wall Street. The idea is great, Fink said—but the word privatization is ‘toxic.’ It’s toxic because people instinctively understand that privatization would make financiers rich and leave other Americans praying that a volatile marketplace will be merciful with their money. Anyone who believes that financial returns are a given could look at what happened to 401(k)s in 2008, when Fink-endorsed mortgage securities crashed and burned, taking down the entire U.S. economy with them. Americans deserve a Social Security system that’s strengthened, not deliberately dismantled. If people are shut out of its phone system, their next call should be to Florida senators and members of Congress—who need to pick up the phone and listen.”
3) National: Michael Lewis, author of the bestselling book on the origins of the 2008 financial crisis, The Big Short, has a new book out, Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service. “The government is a vast, complex system that Americans pay for, rebel against, rely upon, dismiss, and celebrate. It’s also our shared resource for addressing the biggest problems of society. And it’s made up of people, mostly unrecognized and uncelebrated, doing work that can be deeply consequential and beneficial to everyone. Michael Lewis invited his favorite writers, including Casey Cep, Dave Eggers, John Lanchester, Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Vowell, and W. Kamau Bell, to join him in finding someone doing an interesting job for the government and writing about them. The stories they found are unexpected, riveting, and inspiring, including a former coal miner devoted to making mine roofs less likely to collapse, saving thousands of lives; an IRS agent straight out of a crime thriller; and the manager who made the National Cemetery Administration the best-run organization, public or private, in the entire country. Each essay shines a spotlight on the essential behind-the-scenes work of exemplary federal employees.”
4) National: Public Services International remembers Bill Lucy, who served as head of AFSCME from 1972 to 2010 and president of PSI in 1994. [Video, about 3 minutes]
5) National: AFSCME President Lee Saunders released the following statement “after the Trump administration signed a union-busting executive order to unlawfully end collective bargaining for hundreds of thousands of federal workers:”
“President Trump’s attempt to unlawfully eliminate the right to collectively bargain for hundreds of thousands of federal workers is blatant retribution. Federal workers—including thousands of AFSCME members—are the lifeblood of their communities. They protect our clean drinking water and food supply, care for veterans, support American farmers, administer Medicaid and Social Security and so much more. This attack is meant to silence their voices, so Elon Musk and his minions can shred the services that working people depend on the federal government to do. ‘The billionaires running this administration have proven that they are willing to bulldoze anything that stands in their way to enact their anti-worker, extremist agenda—even if it harms our communities. In just two months, they have completed one-third of the 900-page Project 2025 agenda, a plan that robs working people of their power to benefit the ultra-wealthy. AFSCME’s 1.4 million members are prepared to fight to protect federal workers’ voice on the job.”
6) California: Merced citizens have risen up to oppose privatization of their libraries. “The issue is significant because earlier this week dozens of concerned residents spoke during public comment at the Board of Supervisors meeting, demanding county leaders to protect their libraries from privatization,” KVPR’s Rachel Livinal reported. “[Supervisor Scott Silveira] told KVPR he attended the conference in November for the California State Association of Counties. Silveira said he met a vendor at the conference who told him the company could provide “better and more” library services in an efficient way.” (…)
“Under California’s open meeting law, the Brown Act, elected officials cannot meet in groups larger than two to discuss public matters within the agency’s jurisdiction. Therefore, briefings are allowed between two board members. There were several briefings with the vendor, other supervisors, and county staff after the conference, Silveira said. During those briefings, staff compared budget numbers and discussed the possibility of the privatization deal. (…) However, while Silveira said he is confident there will be another briefing on the privatization issue, he thinks the deal with the vendor is ‘not viable.’ (…) Talk about the privatization of the county’s 11 public libraries circulated on social media and through email last week. Susan Walsh, an active member of the Friends of the Merced County Library, wrote the initial email March 17, which included a call to action. ‘The Merced County Board of Supervisors is planning to close the library and privatize its services,’ Walsh wrote. ‘Private is not public. Private is not free.’ In the email, Walsh alleged a ‘proposal’ would be presented very soon, and ‘three out of the five supervisors’ voiced support for it behind closed doors.”
7) Minnesota: Good government as it should be. “A 13 year-old opened a hot dog stand, causing neighbors to file a complaint. Instead of shutting him down, the inspectors helped him bring his stand up to code and paid the $87, for his permit.” [In 2018—ed.]
8) National: Jennifer Berkshire thinks it is “very possible that Greg Abbott and the Texas GOP will succeed in dragging their school voucher bill across the finish line this week. But they’ve set off a conservative backlash that just keeps growing. Hard to see how they won’t pay a price with these folks in the future.” For details see her article in the current Jacobin, “The School Privatization Movement Is Broadly Unpopular.”
9) National: Education Week reports that states are extremely concerned about how cuts to the Education Department’s staff and its alleged blocking of federal funds for states will affect their finances. “The problems have affected at least seven states. In court filings this week, education officials in California, New York, and Illinois said the federal government has failed to reimburse funds for school district expenses since early March—transactions that are typically routine. Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Utah have experienced similar issues in recent weeks, representatives for their respective education agencies told Education Week. The money in question comes from the relatively small sliver of leftover pandemic relief funds school districts and states have allocated and are waiting to “liquidate,” or spend. The delays are affecting programs including ESSER (pandemic relief for public schools), EANS (pandemic relief for private schools), and GEER (pandemic relief for state governors to spend on education). Also affected are remaining funds from the Homeless Children and Youth assistance program, approved as part of the American Rescue Plan in 2021.” [Sub required]
10) California: “No need to apply: Cal State is automatically admitting high school students with good grades,” Mikhail Zinshteyn reports in CalMatters. “Even with less than a week to go before the campuses wrap their final decisions about whom to admit, a pilot program focusing on Riverside County is already showing that more students have been admitted from the county than last year, about 10,600 so far in 2025 compared to last year’s roughly 9,800. The pilot builds on Cal State’s efforts to enroll more students and works like this: High school seniors receive a notice in the mail that they’re automatically admitted as long as they maintain their grades, finish the 15 mandatory courses necessary for admission to a Cal State, and complete an admissions form to claim their spot at a campus. Cal State was able to mail the notices because it signed an agreement with the Riverside County Office of Education that gave the university eligible students’ addresses.”
11) Indiana: Legislation has been introduced in the state House “seeking to block local zoning rules that could hinder new charter school openings after community pushback delayed an all-girls charter school in Indianapolis. House Bill 1515 would prohibit counties, cities and towns from regulating how a school district, charter school or nonpublic school uses its property. The bill specifies that a charter school is allowed as a permitted use in all zoning districts and that its land use application should be processed as a first priority (…) Some residents and school district officials hoped to block the school through the county’s rezoning process. An attorney for Washington Township Schools argued against the change before the Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission, citing local opposition, traffic concerns and claims that the school would not comply with the city-county’s comprehensive plan..”
12) Maine: “The health of democracy depends on health of public education,” writes Ray Vensel in the Portland Press Herald. “Title I, which supports schools with high concentrations of students living in poverty, would be converted into block grants and sent to individual states, without accountability or oversight, to go toward vouchers and charter schools. Redirecting funds needs congressional approval, which has not come in the past. But there’s an effort in Congress to advance privatization, and those funds would be a tremendous boost to that.”
13) New York: Chalkbeat New York reports, “In a legal dispute between the New York City and state education departments over a charter school rent reimbursement, an Albany Supreme Court judge sided with the city last week. The fight centered on a state law requiring the city to provide charter schools space or reimburse them for the cost of rent. The city Education Department sued the state over its interpretation of the law after it approved a reimbursement request from Hellenic Classical Charter Schools. The school rented property on Staten Island then turned over the lease to a group affiliated with the school. That affiliated group then sub-leased the property back to the school at three times its original price, allowing the school to seek more reimbursement from the city. The extra costs were meant to subsidize the construction of a new building for the charter school on the same plot of land, according to court documents.”
14) Puerto Rico: Nirvi Shah, executive editor of The Hechinger Report, asks a good question with an easy answer. “Under Joe Biden, #Puerto Rico experienced tentative education gains, buttressed by billions of dollars and sustained personal attention from top federal education officials. Will it all be dismantled with the change in the White House?”
15) National: What are America’s infrastructure needs? Well, ASCE released its new 2025 Infrastructure Report Card last week. Here are some decision points to compare to another upcoming major proposal—the construction of a so-called “Golden Dome” anti-missile system. This from p. 8 of the ASCE report.
“With the 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, ASCE estimates investment needs total $9.1 trillion for all 18 Report Card categories to reach a state of good repair. Public data and ASCE’s 2024 Bridging the Gap study forecast $5.4 trillion in public and private investments in the 10-year period, 2024 through 2033, if Congress continues recent funding levels. This leaves a gap of $3.7 trillion in investments for America’s infrastructure if we keep investing at current funding levels. However, if Congress were to snap back to investment levels in place prior to recent increases in federal spending, that gap would increase significantly. In fact, ASCE’s Bridging the Gap study, which assesses just 11 of the 18 categories in the 2025 Report Card, finds that the snapback gap would equal the entirety of the 2025 Report Card gap: $3.7 trillion. That figure does not include broadband, dams, levees, hazardous and solid waste, parks, and schools, which represent, at a minimum, an additional gap of $746 billion for a total of $4.4 trillion.”
This week, President Trump is to receive options for developing the so-called “Golden Dome” missile-defense project. “Two of the companies are Lockheed Martin and Booz Allen Hamilton, company representatives confirmed. Others include RTX and Boeing, according to a former senior defense official familiar with the Pentagon’s deliberations on Golden Dome. The former official and an industry expert said SpaceX—a launch provider that also builds satellites—would also be well-positioned to compete for the program.”
And what would “Golden Dome” cost? Trump is to consider options flowing from the more than 360 responses to a request for information posted last month.
The Debrief reports that “It is uncertain how the newly proposed Golden Dome will avoid the same challenges while balancing effectiveness and cost efficiency. A 2024 study published in Defense and Peace Economics estimates that developing a multi-layered missile defense system with a 50% interception success rate could cost anywhere from $430 billion to $5.3 trillion. The study found that for a large-scale U.S. missile defense system to achieve even moderate effectiveness, the U.S. would need to spend, on average, 70 times more than the cost of an adversary’s ICBMs.”
And Defense One reports that a “former senior defense official and an industry expert familiar with the Pentagon’s deliberations said the entire Golden Dome project, as conceived, still suffers from a big flaw: scale. Even with thousands of interceptors in space, missiles will always be easier and cheaper to build on the ground, they said. So an adversary could always build more missiles than there would be interceptors to take them out.”
16) National: Has the privatization of public spaces impinged on constitutional rights? Check out this piece by Anna Kodé and Karsten Moran from The New York Times’ real estate section: Columbia University Locked Its Campus and Unleashed a Contentious Debate. “Public Space, Turned Private: The notion of tightening rules on spaces, making them more private or exclusive as a way to control speech, is not exclusive to college campuses. Homeowners’ associations, for example, use privatization as a way to avoid protests, Ms. Brady said. ‘People routinely opt into homeowners’ associations precisely because they can exercise control over entrances, signs, flags and lawns in ways that formal governments cannot.’ The restrictions can curb liberties outside political expression. Ms. Brady pointed to a 2017 instance of the Kansas City Council voting to privatize sidewalks in order to screen for weapons, an effort to prevent gun violence.”
17) National: How are President Trump’s policies affecting the municipal bond market? “Tariffs, deportations and potential cuts to the federal budget are pushing municipal-bond investors to re-evaluate debt from school districts, hospitals, port operators and other issuers, The Wall Street Journal reports. “The shifting policy landscape means entities considered safe just a few months ago now look more vulnerable in an uncertain market, while some sectors and localities could get an economic boost. The changes have bond-portfolio managers sifting through their asset allocations for signs of trouble.” [Sub required]
18) National: The battle to save a major internet subsidy has reached the U.S. Supreme Court. “The U.S. Supreme Court appeared reluctant Wednesday to strike down a popular program that helps get underserved communities online as they worried about the effects of such a decision. Justices heard oral arguments regarding the future of the Universal Service Fund, known as USF and administered by the Federal Communications Commission. A U.S. appeals court had ruled last year that the mechanism that funds the USF is unconstitutional. USF provides money for a swath of programs, including the Lifeline and High Cost subsidy programs, as well as the Rural Health Care Program and E-Rate, which subsidizes telecoms and other services for public schools and libraries. Justices worried that taking those programs away would have dramatic consequences. ‘If you go through what this program is providing, what would you cut out?’ asked Justice Elena Kagan. ‘This is all basic stuff,’ she added later.”
19) South Carolina/Think Tanks: The Economic Policy Institute’s Chandra Childers, Nina Mast, and Emma Cohn have written a terrific overview of the under covered economic situation of workers in the Palmetto State. “Lack of transportation was one of the top reasons given for not having a job in a survey conducted by the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (Millan Chicago LLC 2022). The report indicates that the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) is providing substantial dollars for public transit. If this results in more low-cost, accessible public transportation that allows workers without private transportation to connect with available jobs, it could not only increase employment and economic security for many South Carolinians, but it will also likely make it easier for businesses to recruit workers.” See also Chandra Childers’ “Chester is a prime example of corporations benefiting from public investments in South Carolina at the expense of local communities.” And check out the rest of EPI’s publications.
20) Wisconsin: Underground Infrastructure reports that “according to Wisconsin Public Radio, the city of Superior, Wisconsin has the state’s only privately-owned water system, which has prevented it from accessing federal funds allocated to replace lead water pipes. Former President Biden pledged $1 billion for lead pipe replacement funding across the state during a visit last year, Wisconsin Public Radio reported. There’s just one problem. Superior can’t access the federal loan forgiveness that helps financially strapped communities upgrade water systems. That’s because Superior is the only community in Wisconsin with a privately owned water utility rather than a public one.”
21) National: President Trump has issued an executive order to end federal union protections across the government. “The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal workers union, estimated that the order would strip labor protections from hundreds of thousands of civil servants, and said it was preparing legal action. ‘This administration’s bullying tactics represent a clear threat not just to federal employees and their unions, but to every American who values democracy and the freedoms of speech and association, Everett Kelley, the union’s president, said in a statement. ‘Trump’s threat to unions and working people across America is clear: fall in line or else.’ Unions have been a major obstacle in Mr. Trump’s effort to slash the size of the federal work force and reshape the government to put it more directly under his control. They have repeatedly sued over his blizzard of executive actions, winning at least temporary reprieves for some fired federal workers and blocking efforts to dismantle portions of the government.”
AFGE says Trump’s order is illegal. UNITE Here says “Trump’s union-busting executive order targeting Federal workers’ collective bargaining rights is more than an attack on them—it’s an attack on us all and the government services millions of Americans rely on. Together with @AFLCIO and all government workers, we will beat this.”
22) National: The Washington Post reports that Elon Musk’s DOGE “wants businesses to run government services ‘as much as possible.’” “‘It’s been clear from the first days of the administration that one of their main longer-term objectives is privatization of many government assets,’ said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM. ‘They’ve been very clear about their intent.’ Traditional Republicans have long argued that private companies can do a better job of managing government services than civil servants. But Musk and his Silicon Valley associates want to push the idea much further than the mainstream GOP. At a Morgan Stanley technology conference this month, Musk said the government should privatize ‘everything we possibly can.’
“The Silicon Valley way of embracing privatization, the person said, would be to first make information public—as Musk has done by posting budget details on X—and have a more rigorous open bidding process for contracts, which prioritizes technological innovation. ‘The Silicon Valley version of [privatization] is a technologized, transparent version—let’s compare everything out in the open—radical meritocracy,’ the person said. Not all of the projects under consideration will be realized. But together, these efforts show that a new way of doing things is well underway, said Bob Hockett, a Cornell University law professor and senior counsel at investment firm Westwood Capital. ‘They are rapidly turning the government into something more like a shareholder-controlled corporation,’ he said.”
23) National: “Private airlines are making billions on deportations,” Katya Schwenk reports in Jacobin. “At the center of this business, as a report this week from the Project on Government Oversight revealed, is a New Mexico firm that has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to President Donald Trump and GOP super PACs: CSI Aviation. Last year, the company won a $3.6 billion contract for the flights — although its main competitor, CIA-linked Classic Air Charter, says it was cheated out of the award and is challenging the decision in court.
“Other subcontractors profiting off the mass deportation program include GEO Transit, a subsidiary of the GEO Group, the world’s largest private prison company and another key Trump donor, as well as GlobalX, the airline behind the recent flights to El Salvador, which has recently been mired in allegations of mistreating migrants on its planes. (GlobalX executives have said the company expects $65 million a year in revenue from its ICE contract.) The billions that private companies are making from the flights throw into sharp relief the profiteering behind ICE’s deportation regime, where private air charter companies bring in enormous profits deporting immigrants with little oversight. And thanks to the GOP spending bill, that oversight may be further scaled back.”
24) National: National Nurses United responds to the Trump/Musk administration’s intention to cut 10,000 jobs at the Health and Human Services Department. “’Registered nurses continue to be shocked and disturbed by the current administration’s starving of critical public health care resources. ‘Our nation’s public health depends on the dedicated civil servants who ensure the smooth delivery of health care to our nation’s elderly, young, and poor through Medicaid, prevent the spread of infectious diseases through the CDC, and develop health promotion and disease and injury prevention programs across all federal agencies. The knowledge, expertise, and resources they provide enable state and local governments to support the health of our communities. The 225,000 nurses in our union and the millions of nurses across the country depend on these federal agencies to keep us safe and to keep our patients safe. These staffing cuts, in concert with recent funding and grant cuts— like the CDC’s withdrawal of $11.4 billion in infectious disease response—should be alarming to anyone who is invested in improving our country’s health care outcomes.
25) National: The Economist reports that “Louis DeJoy, America’s postmaster-general, resigned despite having said last month that he would stay on until a successor was in place. Mr. DeJoy, whom Mr. Trump appointed in 2020, had reportedly clashed with the Department of Government Efficiency. Mr. Trump has considered bringing the Postal Service under the control of the Department of Commerce, calling the USPS a ‘tremendous loser’ of money. Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, wants to privatise the service.” [Sub required]. The Wall Street interests are circling.
26) National: The New York Times reports that privatizing the government-sponsored mortgage giants could be a windfall for investors and raise interest rates for home buyers. “‘It would mean that mortgage rates would increase—definitely,’ said Laurie Goodman, the founder of the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C.” But the pressure from Wall Street to privatize Fannie and Freddie (while keeping government as a bailout backstop) is intense. “Multifamily finance experts see value in privatizing the agencies. Mike Fratantoni, the MBA’s chief president of research and industry technology, believes that any privatization of Fannie and Freddie must preserve the federal backstop. ‘A private company could be more innovative, more flexible and more responsive to changing market conditions, which is what the private lenders and market lenders could value,’ said Mike Fratantoni, chief economist & senior vice president of research and industry technology at the Mortgage Bankers Association. Further, a privatization could be long overdue. ‘Many in the industry recognize that this conservatorship was never meant to be permanent, and the portfolios and balance sheets are much smaller so that there is not the same level of liquidity risk,’ Fratantoni told Multi-Housing News.”
27) National: April Verrett, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), responded to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announcement that it will cut as many as 10,000 jobs to comply with President Trump’s executive order to shrink federal government: “Slashing 10,000 jobs that support critical services across HHS will further undermine the mission of the Department to ensure the health of the nation. SEIU members working in hospitals, nursing homes, and in-home care are concerned this will jeopardize their ability to deliver quality care. This massive layoff, which includes staff at the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, comes as we’re experiencing a surge in measles cases and an ongoing Bird Flu epidemic. It will create a huge roadblock to efficient implementation of Medicaid, Medicare, community health centers, child care and other vital programs. The elimination of the Administration for Community Living, which coordinates programs for seniors and people with disabilities, will make it more difficult to sustain community-based programs and the workforce that supports them.”
28) Georgia: The Macon Telegraph reports that “a group of Middle Georgia postal workers are sounding the alarm about potential threats to mail delivery as President Donald Trump’s administration weighs changes to the U.S. Postal Service, stoking fears of privatization. Members of the National Association of Letter Carriers, a union representing postal workers, gathered Sunday in Macon as part of nationwide protests against Trump’s pushes to privatize USPS. The union members, who are employees of USPS offices in Macon and Warner Robins, warn that cuts could have major ramifications for businesses and people living in rural areas. ‘It would become a private entity for others to make money off of, but it’s supposed to be a self-contained organization,’ said Ronnie Buie, a letter carrier and president of a local NALC chapter.
29) Ohio: Hundreds protest in Cleveland against USPS privatization. “‘The point of the government was never to make money,’ one protester told us. “No one is making money from the post office. If you’re looking to privatize it, then someone is looking to make money and I think people will suffer because of that.’ Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported that USPS had agreed to work with the Department of Government Efficiency— also known as DOGE— to cut 10,000 workers. ‘USPS currently employs about 640,000 workers tasked with making deliveries from inner cities to rural areas and even far-flung islands,’ according to reporting from the AP on March 14. ‘The service plans to cut 10,000 employees in the next 30 days through a voluntary early retirement program, according to the letter. The USPS announced the plan during the final days of the Biden administration in January but at the time didn’t include the number of workers expected to leave.’”
30) Utah: Workers rally against USPS privatization, prepare counter talking points. [Video, about 3 minutes]
31) National: CFO magazine had a noteworthy piece on the critical shortage of accountants in the private sector. “Accounting has a Gen Z problem. It’s time for new talent strategies.” This is bound to affect government accounting whether in-house or outsourced.
32) National: Jobs with Justice reports in an email that “this past week we were in Atlanta, GA launching a hub for reimagining an economic path to democracy through the lens of southern workers at Clark Atlanta University. The Labor Institute for Advancing Black Strategists, a first-of-its-kind labor center at a Historically Black College and University, will cultivate a national network of leaders through comprehensive research, seminars, internships, and field experiences that are centered on southern worker organizing, especially among Black workers. Emphasizing the experiences of those embedded in the most exploitative regions of the country is crucial in this moment as we navigate how to build a majority movement for democracy. Yet, today, President Donald Trump has called for a “return to truth and sanity”, signing an executive order to erase centuries of the nation’s multiracial experience and whitewash the complicated yet resilient history of this country. We will resist attempts to revise our shared history in service to a powerful and wealthy few. Workers have always confronted White Supremacy and systems of oppression head on, leading the cultural, political, and labor victories of the past and present.”
33) Resource: How do you file a Freedom of Information Act request? FOIA Basics for Activists has a great website with lots of how-tos and background information. Check out the introduction and overview.