According to this Koch Industry favorite son, if you just turn public services over to private interests, then somehow someway, Huge Savings will magically appear, with better quality of services. All without raising a cent of revenues. Such is the Koch-inspired plan for America.
Gov. Christie Moves to Privatize N.J. Public Schools
by Bruce Walker -- thenewamerican.com, June 13, 2011
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has found a way to solve the problem of chronically sub-standard public schools in his state, while dissolving the barnacles of public education, and its immense bureaucracy: privatize public education. The first part of his plan would authorize management organizations to operate five under-performing public schools in a public-private partnership.
Not surprisingly, New Jersey teachers’ unions have blasted this move as part of the Governor’s “ongoing effort to privatize public education in New Jersey.”
The proposal comes after the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Governor Christie's education cuts of $1 billion last year were unconstitutional and that they shortchanged disadvantaged students. The court ordered the state to spend approximately $500 million more on its poorest schools next year. Christie attacked the ruling, noting that school reform goes beyond just the amount of money spent. He said of his new approach, "Perhaps most importantly, through the knowledge that change is on the way, this program will begin to restore hope in communities where failing schools deny children hope and opportunity."
Cutting Public Education funding, just might be unconstitutional. Who knew?
Obviously not the NJ CEO, who as we recently found out:
David Koch introduced Gov. Christie as "my kind of guy."
Uh oh. All the recent Christie 'hemming and hawing', suddenly has its backdrop.
Who needs Public Schools anyways? ... Certainly, not -- the Public!
Well the Christie Privatization Plan for his little fiefdom, doesn't stop with just NJ public schools, you realize. All public employees in NJ must soon learn to quit living high off the hog. This is something Christie probably knows a thing or two about ... living off the hog.
Christie administration recommends massive privatization of N.J. services
by Claire Heininger, Statehouse Bureau, The Star-Ledger -- July 09, 2010
State parks, psychiatric hospitals and even Turnpike toll booths could also be run by private operators, according to the 57-page report on privatization obtained by The Star-Ledger. Preschool classrooms would no longer be built at public expense, state employees would pay for parking and private vendors would dish out food, deliver health care and run education programs behind prison walls.
All told, the report says, New Jersey could save at least $210 million a year by delivering an array of services through private hands.
Funny, with all of those Koch Billions backing you, you'd think they could've crunched the numbers in the Christie Privatization Plan. Of course, if they had -- the Plan would have been just that much harder to ram through, given a skeptical NJ electorate.
Fuzzy Privatization Math
by Ellen Dannin, Pennsylvania State University -- March 14, 2011
Employment Policy Resource Network (EPRN)
On May 31, 2010, Governor Chris Christie’s New Jersey Privatization Task Force reported that more than $210 million would be saved by privatizing work that had traditionally been performed by government workers. The report even set out specific figures for some of the cost savings it identified, while others said savings were “TBD” – “To Be Decided”.
Who crunched the numbers to show that private contractors would do a better job or at least the same job for less money than public employees? The Privatization Task Force Report says that no one did. On page 14 the report says it did no analysis “due not only to the fact that the actual cost of a privatized alternative will often not be known until the end of a full fledged competitive bidding process, but also because New Jersey state government agencies have difficulty calculating with precision the full cost of functions currently performed at the state level.” So, the sunny claims of big savings for the people of New Jersey are a guestimate, at best. and “To Be Decided” is the most accurate statement in the report.
Got to read that fine print, and those GOP disclaimers:
The actual savings from Privatization, may be smaller than they appear, in the rear view mirror.
Well Christie's budget cuts to schools haven't "magically fixed them" either. Who knew? According to O'Reilly -- "cutting something, gives you more of it", or something like that.
Well NJ School Districts are now fighting back, to get their legal due.
Rural Schools in N.J. Sue for Funding
Districts Are Seeking $19 Million
by Lisa Fleisher, online.wsj.com -- Sept 28, 2011
Sixteen rural school districts have sued New Jersey, saying Gov. Chris Christie illegally cut their state funding.
Under state law, the districts should receive nearly $19 million more than the $131 million they will get in the budget for this school year, according to the Education Law Center, an advocacy group for urban districts that is assisting on the case, which was filed last month in appellate court.
"They've had to cut teachers, they had to cut programs, they have had their class sizes go way up, they've had to cut bus routes, they've had to privatize staffing like cafeteria workers and bus drivers," said Frederick Jacob, a lawyer representing the 16 districts. "The effect on education is devastating."
THAT -- is what GOP Privatization Plans will mean to America, if they continue to build them deconstruct them.:
"The effect will be devastating."
Privatization may be a "field of dreams" for Billionaires who can ride in with their bargain basement bids, to corral all those newly-let Government Contracts, like so much low hanging fruit.
But for the rest of us, not so much. For the rest of us it will be more like a "field of broken dreams" ... if the Christie band of merry privateers continue to succeed in getting their low, low bid, way.