I’ve written plenty about Aramark in Michigan, the company that rakes in piles of your tax money as governments outsource key services to this for-profit corporation. I’ve also talked about how their for-profit prison food contracts have had problems in other states, as well. But Aramark isn’t just in the prison food business. One of the other things they do […]

Food vendor employees having sex with prisoners. Maggots in the food service areas. Prison food shortages. Scores of employees banned from prisons. I’ve written about all of this and more about the for-profit prison food vendor Aramark in Michigan. But the scandals here are not the only scandals Aramark is facing. They are on the hot seat in Ohio for […]

First, let’s recap where we are regarding private for-profit prison food vendor Aramark: Sex scandals. Passing drugs to inmates. Running out of prison food. Maggots in prison food. MORE maggots in prison food. And now more sex scandals. All of this from one for-profit vendor for food in Michigan prisons: Aramark. In all, over 80 of their employees have been […]

County Commissioners from Oakland and Ingham Counties joined Progress Michigan yesterday in calling for Governor Rick Snyder to end the state’s prison food services contract with Aramark. Aramark has faced a rash of scandals including employees bringing drugs and other contraband into prisons, employees engaging in sexual activities with prisoners, and maggots being found in food service areas in two […]

Ooo-ooo, that smell… Last month, after the Detroit News tore back the curtains on the secretive “skunk works” group, staffed by some of Gov. Snyder’s aides and aimed at destroying our public school system while funneling the proceeds to for-profit charter schools, the group was quickly reconfigured to be one that was more, shall we say, public? The Governor’s staffer […]

Coming soon to an Education Achievement Authority school near you?

Alternet has a frightening piece up this week about the experience of a small, impoverished California town that utilized a “parent trigger” to give its school system over to a private group. The piece, “Exposed: The Billionaire-Backed Group Strong-Arming Parents into Destroying Their Kids’ Public Schools” is worth your time to read.

The story is one of a corporate-funded drive to privatize schools in poor areas. What’s frightening is that there is legislation for doing the same here in Michigan and there is nothing in the bill that would prevent making these schools profit centers for for-profit corporate education companies. Funded by groups like the Walton Family Foundation, the Gates Foundation and the Broad foundation, a group called “Parent Revolution” used strong arm tactics and bullying to convince poor residents of Adelanto, California to privatize their school system.

Click through for more.

Sometimes not “everything” should be on the table

In a recent interview prior to assuming his new position as the Emergency Manager of Detroit, Kevyn Orr said that “everything is on the table” with regard to solving Detroit’s financial problem. Not only that, he specifically said that “everything is on the table” with regard to the future of the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department. This could include, according to Orr, sale or privatization of the department.

This would be a HUGE mistake. Click through for why sale or privatization of the department should be taken OFF the table before any further discussions take place.

I’ve been a bit critical of my Senator Rebekah Warren lately but this I like. Warren is teaming up with Hoon-Yung Hopgood of Taylor to introduce legislation to ban for-profit schools in Michigan. Democratic Sens. Rebekah Warren of Ann Arbor and Hoon-Yung Hopgood of Taylor announced Tuesday they will introduce a constitutional amendment to ban for-profit schools in Michigan, saying […]

You have to hand it to the Republicans who are hell-bent on destroying the public school systems through what they dishonestly call the “schools of choice” initiative, they are nothing if not creative. This label is dishonest because the reality is that the “choice” they mention is only available to those with the resources to afford it. If you can […]

Last month, I wrote about an attempt to privatize the nurse aides at a veteran’s health care facility in Michigan. A plan to privatize nurses aides at a state-run veterans health care facility is drawing sharp criticism from unions as well as patients at the facility. At a Michigan Civil Service Commission (MCSC) hearing this week, Commissioners heard from a […]

New Yorker Michael Trapp nearly found out the hard way that privatization can get you killed. Confusion by a Virginia-based controller and search operations coordinated by the U.S. Coast Guard in Cleveland are blamed in a report for delaying rescue efforts for a pilot who spent 18 hours in Lake Huron after his small plane crashed within sight of the […]