News

Romney Endorsed in Primary Debate Either Eliminating or Privatizing FEMA

Emergency management is a critical federal program, if for no other reason than because of budget constraints. If states were expected to assume the full costs of emergency management, because they are bound by balanced budget rules, the money would have to come out of education or health care or some other public service. But the federal government can generate funds for natural disasters, use its ultra-low borrowing costs, and provide them to states so they don’t have to rob Peter to pay Paul. Firedoglake

Ann Romney: We Need To ‘Throw Out’ The Public Education System

Ann Romney told Good Housekeeping magazine that the campaign issue closest to her heart is taking on teachers unions and dismantling public education as we know it. In an interview, she told the publication: I’ve been a First Lady of the State. I have seen what happens to people’s lives if they don’t get a proper education. And we know the answers to that. The charter schools have provided the answers. The teachers’ unions are preventing those things from happening, from bringing real change to our educational system. We need to throw out the system.  ThinkProgress

CA: Costa Mesa outsourcing fight could have far-reaching effects

After a court ruling favorable to Costa Mesa’s employee union, labor groups could now have the power to block municipalities from privatizing basic services such as street sweeping, which many cities have done for years, experts say. OCRegister

GA: Why take MARTA private?

The MARTA privatization debate continues today. The president of the local union criticizes management and says that going private means sending public dollars overseas and contributing to sweatshop conditions. Atlanta Journal Constitution

NY: Central Park Gets More, While the City’s Poorer Parks, Well, They Just Get By

It was a munificent gift, just superb. John A. Paulson, the multibillionaire owner of a hedge fund with income taxed at a rate less than that of most New York City schoolteachers, stepped forward and showered $100 million on Central Park…. But when officials in New York’s more distant parks plead for a little bit more, city officials suggest selling off naming rights and letting corporations slap names on basketball and dog runs. (IMG Worldwide, a sports marketing company, is overseeing the sale of these naming rights, for a handsome fee.) City officials and their quasi-public hangers-on are rather clear on the rules of this game: You smile at every crumb that falls off the plutocratic table, and only a rube shares his proceeds. New York Times