1. School Services Privatization Resources and Tools Shar Habibi March 3, 2015

2. Agenda Problems with school services privatization – What have you seen? Successful Strategies Research and Tools Responsible contracting ideas ITPI – what do we do?

3. Privatizing support services hurt workers, children and families Lower wages and benefits for workers Cutting corners Fewer neighborhood workers, higher turnover weaken the connection between students and school community Overstated cost savings or no cost savings Confused accountability, but ultimate responsibility with district Lack of administrative capacity to oversee contractor Loss of control over school services

4. Successful strategies Don’t wait for the proposal to happen – Monitor rumors, and contracting process – Responsible Contracting Policies (The TEA) Ask the Right Questions: Delay and defeat outsourcing proposals Don’t fight alone – involve parents, communities, students, allies Tell the stories – Loss of control message – How school service staff go above and beyond – How public service provision differs from what the RFP will require

5. Ask the Right Questions: School Services Guide Important questions that decision makers should consider when faced with a proposed privatization effort Framework for examining and evaluating school services privatization Meetings with school administrators, in testimony at school, board hearings, and in meetings with allies

6. Tell the story: Duties outside the RFP Set up & take down for assemblies Monitor kindergarten toilets where kids don’t know how to flush Identify & deal with asbestos and mold problems Service & repair boilers and furnaces Deal with locker problems Lunchroom & playground monitoring

7. Careful analysis of proposed contract Scope of Service. “Following award of the Contract, the Contractor shall conduct a Service Study and provide a comprehensive analysis of proposed and existing service standards.” Enforcement Standards. Sodexho will provide “an operational model [and] staffing plan…[including] a methodology for verification and compliance with service standards and method of adjustment of the fee if/when standards are not met.” Quality Review. Sodexho will distribute standards of cleanliness to school staff and teachers and conduct periodic “customer satisfaction surveys” for teachers to evaluate performance.

8. How to talk about privatization effectively

9. Terrain to Navigate Business “Effectiveness” Public/Private Blur “Give it a try” Budget Worries Government “Inefficiency” Distrust of Government

10. Terrain to Navigate Business “Effectiveness” Public/Private Blur “Give it a try” Budget Worries Government “Inefficiency” Distrust of Government

11. Messages that Miss the Mark – Business Motives: We’ve all seen how corporate greed is breaking this country. – Bad Outcomes: This deal will reduce services, increase prices. – Corruption: Politicians reward their friends with private contracts. – Accountability: Private business isn’t accountable to the people. – Employees: It is the workers who will suffer with reduced wages.

12. A Message that Works Privatization means HANDING OVER CONTROL of X to a private business.

13. For Example The main reason to be wary about handing over a service to a private company is that we are giving up control over how it is operated. Once we hand over control, or even outright ownership, if the private company starts running the operation into the ground, or charging exorbitant fees, we have very little say. When the public is in control, it can demand that operations be open to public review, accountable to the people, and run in the public interest. Privatization means giving control to people who may have entirely different goals and priorities.

14. Why this Message Works Sticky Compelling Transcends political affiliation

15. Selected Proposals from TEA – Regularly post online how much taxpayers are spending on private contracts and how many workers are employed by those contracts (62% support) – Prohibit any company that has evaded taxes or broken the law from taking over public services (68% support) – Require companies that privatize public services to pay their employees a living wage and provide reasonable benefits (78% support) – Require a study to determine how privatization would affect the larger community and post the results online before any contract is signed (69% support)

16. Other Useful ITPI Research 1.“Ask the right questions” 2.Race to the Bottom 3.Oversight Report 4.Privatization Myths 5.The High Costs of Privatization backgrounder

17. Other Useful Research Runaway Spending: Private Contractors Increase the Cost of School Student Transportation Services in Pennsylvania Keystone Research Center, 2012 Runaway Spending: Private Contractors Increase the Cost of School Student Transportation Services in Pennsylvania Pushing Working Families into Poverty: Assessing the New Haven Plan to Privatize the Public Schools’ Custodial Services PERI, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2011 Pushing Working Families into Poverty: Assessing the New Haven Plan to Privatize the Public Schools’ Custodial Services AAPS and the Privatization of School Support Functions Roland Zullo, 2010 AAPS and the Privatization of School Support Functions Hard to Swallow: Do Private Food Service Contractors Shortchange New Jersey Schools? Clarion Group, 2010 Hard to Swallow: Do Private Food Service Contractors Shortchange New Jersey Schools? Serving Students: A Survey of Contracted Food Service Work in New Jersey's K-12 Public Schools Rutgers University, 2009 Serving Students: A Survey of Contracted Food Service Work in New Jersey's K-12 Public Schools

18. What ITPI does Research and resources Coalition-building Policy “Help desk”

19. www.InThePublicInterest.org. If you have questions, please email shabibi@inthepublicinterest.org or call 202-429-5091.