privatization

September 15, 2022 - Speaking in response to Jackson's latest drinking water crisis, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) has said that privatization of the city's system is under consideration. But many U.S. communities that privatized their water reconsidered after encountering problems including shoddy maintenance and a lack of promised savings.

August 6, 2020 - After North Carolina businessman and major GOP donor Louis DeJoy was appointed postmaster general in May, he announced an "operational pivot" to control costs that's caused delivery delays. Critics worry that DeJoy — who grew wealthy on USPS contracts and remains invested in USPS competitors — is a political partisan who's operationalizing President Trump's hostility to mail-in voting.

August 9, 2018 - With private prisons under scrutiny, some Southern states have moved away from contracting with them — but some have gone in the other direction. Where does your state stand?

February 6, 2018 - In the harshest of environments for union organizers, United Campus Workers achieved a historic win in the fight against Gov. Bill Haslam's privatization scheme.

September 2, 2016 - The same day a high-profile undocumented student who was recently released on bond from a private detention center in Georgia detailed his experience at a press conference, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would review whether to follow the lead of the Justice Department and cut ties with private prison contractors.

May 18, 2015 - The Republicans running Mississippi have the prison system in shambles, workers' compensation gutted, education on a precipice — and journalist Joe Atkins looking back to populist Louisiana Gov. "Uncle" Earl Long for solace.

October 15, 2014 - Baker Mitchell is a politically connected North Carolina businessman who celebrates the power of the free market. Every year, millions of public education dollars flow through Mitchell's chain of four nonprofit charter schools to for-profit companies he controls.

March 12, 2014 - The Obama administration continues its push to privatize the Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides electricity for 9 million people in seven Southeastern states without taxpayer subsidy and at prices below the national average.

December 17, 2013 - The Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank founded and bankrolled by N.C. budget director Art Pope, sought funding to portray the Medicaid program as "failed" and to urge funding cuts, according to leaked documents obtained by The Guardian. The effort comes as the McCrory administration wants to privatize management of the public health insurance program for the poor and disabled.

September 20, 2013 - As U.S. incarceration rates fall, private prison companies are taking steps to guarantee profits with contracts requiring states to either meet prison occupancy quotas or pay for empty beds. Louisiana and Virginia are among the states locked into the highest occupancy guarantee requirements.