Note: This is the first of a once-a-month presentation of recent news and information about privatization of public goods and services, from education, to infrastructure, to parks–and parking meters, as well as about democracy and good government. But we issue this with hearts heavy over what’s happened–and is still happening–in Minnesota. For words better than we can compose ourselves, we turn to this new release from Bruce Springsteen, “The Streets of Minneapolis.” 

WRESTLING WITH EDUCATION A national coalition of public education advocates is launching a national campaign to urge governors to reject the federal school voucher tax credit that was included in Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill.” For a good summary of the arguments against the program read the editorial from Robert Kim, executive director of the Education Law Center, in the Progressive.

Meanwhile, daughter-slapping entertainment impresario (and, uh U.S. Secretary of Education) Linda McMahon is taking her show on the road with a national tour called History Rocks!, described as an initiative that “is a key component of the U.S. Department of Education’s America 250 celebrations, coordinated with the America 250 Civics Education Coalition, a national partnership with the America First Policy Institute, Turning Point USA, Hillsdale College, and more than 50 national and state organizations.”

WATER RETENTION Public water advocates in eastern Pennsylvania, whose fights against privatization In the Public Interest documented in Pennsylvania Water Wars: How Corporations Play the Long Game, achieved a victory earlier this month when the state supreme court ruled that the city of Chester, Pennsylvania alone did not have the authority to sell off the Chester Water Authority (CWA) projects to a private corporation. Instead, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled, the legislatively designated municipalities that share governance of the authority–the city of Chester, Chester County, and Delaware County, are the “property authorities” over the CWA. 

WE’LL PASS In last week’s newsletter, in which we discussed threats to our National Parks, we didn’t have the space to include the part where the federal government is erasing significant parts of American history–and science.  “Trump officials have ordered national parks to remove dozens of signs and displays related to climate change, environmental protection and settlers’ mistreatment of Native Americans in a renewed push to implement President Donald Trump’s executive order on ‘restoring truth and sanity to American history,’” reports the Washington Post.

At the same time, the administration is not allowing park pass holders to erase–or otherwise deface–any part of the visitor passes, widely seen as an attempt to prevent patrons from placing stickers over the image of President Trump, which was added to the passes this year. .

PRIVATIZATION (OF) DISASTER The New York Times reports a bottleneck for distributing about $17 million funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) because of an expenditure review process put in place by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Some of the outstanding money dates as far back as Hurricanes Harvey and Maria. Meanwhile claims are piling up, like cars on icy highways, with this week’s winter storms. A year ago, President Trump said his administration was considering recommending the agency “go away.” 

But if you happen to have attended last year’s Academy Award Ceremony, you’d probably be just fine: Vox reports that the swag bags gifted to attendees of the 2025 ceremony included a one year subscription to “a white-glove disaster recovery service” called Bright Harbor. A half-dozen years ago, ITPI pointed out that a quasi-privatized fire-fighting infrastructure was favoring expensive fire fighting over fire prevention strategies. 

PRIVATIZATION OF PRIVATES (AND GENERALS AND SAILORS AND SO ON)  Washington Monthly reports that a VA privatization pilot program included in pending legislation in Congress, the Veterans’ ACCESS Act of 2025, “threatens to undermine veterans’ health care and saddle taxpayers with staggering costs.” The magazine reports the program would allow veterans with mental health and substance use disorders “unlimited private-sector provider appointments without VA authorization” and would expand such unrestricted access across the entire VA system after three years. In July 2025, the Trump administration announced it was on pace to rid the VA of  30,000 employees by the end of that year. 

Privatization is also capturing more and more of U.S. military life, with the navy considering turning over onshore galleys to private contractors, following similar plans being pursued by the army to privatize its dining services.

MUSK-O-METER Want to find out how your spending power stacks up against Elon Musk’s (spoiler: it doesn’t, and won’t)? Check out You vs. a Billionaire.com. It’s fun…until it isn’t. 

Jeff Hagan
Communications Director