In every city and state, corporations and private investors are lobbying to lower taxes on the wealthy and profit from taking control of the public goods and services we all rely on.
This toolkit will help you understand privatization and learn strategies for fighting back to make government work for all of us.
What is “privatization?”
People like you can make a difference
- A coalition of state workers, legislators, advocacy groups, and concerned citizens helped pass Massachusetts’s “Pacheco Law,” protecting the state from corrupt and reckless privatization of public services.
- Parents, teachers, and school staff at a Florida elementary school organized an effort to have the local government install new streetlights near campus after learning that many students felt unsafe walking to school in the dark. Attendance immediately increased, which helped improve test scores.
- Activists and community groups in Baltimore, M.D., demanded and helped pass a law prohibiting the city from selling or leasing its water and sewer system to private investors or a corporation.
Tools to stop bad privatization deals
Tools to protect your community
What to do
- Download the above tools and attend your local council meetings, school board meetings, and state legislative hearings.
- Email us to get connected to people organizing in your area: info@inthepublicinterest.org
- Subscribe to our email newsletters: Weekly Privatization Report, Cashing in on Kids, and Community Schools.
- Start a book club reading In the Public Interest executive director Donald Cohen’s book The Privatization of Everything. Discussion questions can be found here.