CA: The state's backward ways

OC Register ^ | 8/4/04 | Lisa Snell - Reason Foundation

[NormsRevenge]

The state budget deal contains some devastating compromises, including one that will hit California's kids hard: Republicans agreed to drop their demand to revise a 2002 law that largely prohibits schools from hiring private firms for food, transportation, and janitorial and landscaping services.

The failure to repeal this law and give districts more control over funding puts California at odds with national trends in utilizing public- private partnerships to improve public education and condemns many districts to financial straits.

Schools across the country have saved millions through outsourcing, thus directing more resources to classrooms. When the St. Louis school district faced a $90 million deficit, the school board hired William Roberti and his corporate turnaround firm to fix the district's financial troubles and return more money to the classroom. A July 2004 report on the corporate management experiment found that in 13 months, Roberti's team cut $80 million from the budget, privatized divisions such as maintenance and food services, and fixed the district's snarled bus system. Among the major services outsourced were payroll handling, warehouse operations, buildings and grounds maintenance, and electronic purchasing. Outsourcing saved the schools $60 million out of a $450 million budget, enabling them to add 131 teachers, hire literacy coaches for each school, begin computerized reading tests for students in grades 3-12 and fill vacancies in magnet schools.

[NormsRevenge]

Gee, who was fighting outsourcing recently as the latest budget debacle was going down in StinkyMento?

[Mister Baredog]

Union protectionism at it's worst.