In the Public Interest
Democracy, shared prosperity, and the common good
In the Public Interest is a comprehensive research and policy center on privatization and responsible contracting.
In the Public Interest
Democracy, shared prosperity, and the common good
In the Public Interest is a comprehensive research and policy center on privatization and responsible contracting.
California will spend millions on coronavirus aid. But what if the jobs created pay poverty wages?
SB 749, introduced by State Senator Maria Elena Durazo, is a commonsense bill that would require jobs-related information in government contracts to be made public.
August 2020
Structural racism is holding all of us back
Now more than ever, we must root out racist practices and rules embedded in the public goods we all rely upon.
July 2020
New publicly funded charter school to open teaching ‘traditions of Western civilization’
Recent news about the effort to privatize public education in California and the families, students, and teachers fighting back.
July 2020
Video of activist connecting police funding to education defunding goes viral
Cashing in on Kids is an email newsletter for people fighting to stop the privatization of America’s public schools.
July 2020
Two competing visions for America’s post-pandemic future
We've been cutting corporate taxes, slashing regulations, and limiting democracy for years. But there's another way.
July 2020
Parents, get these questions answered before enrolling your child in online schooling
Cashing in on Kids is an email newsletter for people fighting to stop the privatization of America's public schools.
July 2020
Trump to seek private, religious school scholarships in next recovery bill
Cashing in on Kids is an email newsletter for people concerned about the privatization of America's schools.
July 2020
How police ended up in America’s public schools
Our email newsletter for people who think public education should be truly, absolutely, authentically public.
June 2020
As small businesses suffer, charter schools are double dipping in coronavirus aid
Our email newsletter for people who think public education should be truly, absolutely, authentically public.
June 2020
New report reveals that many of the nation’s charter schools are double dipping in public [...]
Charter schools are securing coronavirus relief meant for businesses even as they also benefit from public school aid.
June 2020
World’s largest for-profit education company is using pandemic to push tech-driven “mastery-based learning”
Our newsletter for people who think public education should be truly, absolutely, authentically public.
June 2020
Is there peril or promise in online learning?
Our email newsletter for people who think public education should be truly, absolutely, authentically public
May 2020
A Philly suburb wants to sell its water, offering a glimpse of post-COVID America
As revenues plunge, cities like Chester, Pa., must resist the temptation to privatize crucial public goods and services.
May 2020
Research overwhelmingly shows that a computer can’t replace a real live K-12 public school
Technology should be seen as a tool to help teachers teach, not replace them and the schools they teach in altogether.
May 2020
Research Brief: Why online education can’t replace brick-and-mortar K-12 schooling
Research on online education reveals a long track record of poor academic performance, lack of equity and access, and privacy concerns.
May 2020
The Postal Service helped us survive Spanish Flu. Amid coronavirus, Trump is trying to bankrupt it.
The October 25, 1918 edition of the Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer, a local Connecticut newspaper, reads like it was written during the COVID-19 pandemic. The frontpage reports a decline in cases of the Spanish Flu. [...]
May 2020
“Humans are biohazards, machines are not.” New York to “reimagine” public education.
Our newsletter for people who think public education should be truly, absolutely, authentically public.
May 2020
Front-line workers need more than thank-yous. They need Congress to save states and localities.
It’s both #TeacherAppreciationWeek and Public Service Recognition Week, which uses the hashtag #PSRW. And, yes, we should #ThankATeacher and honor our federal, state, county, and local government employees. But teachers, [...]
May 2020
Online K-12 education companies during coronavirus are “like coke dealers handing out free [...]
NewSchools Venture Fund, a pro-privatization, anti-teacher nonprofit, has compiled a list of free tools and products.
May 2020
Online K-12 education during the coronavirus crisis, explained
The forced closing of public schools and the move to “distance learning” through online tools, apps, pre-packaged lesson plans, and tracking devices raises the question: what does the future of education look like? [...]
May 2020
Why we should be raising (not cutting) taxes on the richest Americans right now
What Naomi Klein dubbed the “shock doctrine” is in full gear. Corporations are salivating over using the coronavirus crisis to further privatize public goods and services, from the U.S. Postal Service to public [...]
April 2020
For-profit online education company K12 Inc. to investors: There’s “upside” in the pandemic
Cashing in on Kids is a newsletter for people who think public education should be truly public—produced by In the Public Interest.
April 2020
Will you help us stop the privatizers? Take this survey about online public education.
The Koch-funded Mercatus Center is calling for the deregulation of public education. The right-wing Heritage Foundation’s “National Coronavirus Recovery Commission,” which includes an executive with the for-profit [...]
April 2020
“This is someone who once said public education was a ‘dead end.’”
Statement on Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s new federal funding for “online/virtual” education that will accelerate privatization of public education
April 2020
11 warning signs that someone is trying to privatize your public school
Our pick of recent news about the effort to privatize public education in California and the families, students, and teachers fighting back.
April 2020
How to spot privatization schemes in the middle of a crisis
Two checklists for monitoring threats of privatization of public goods and services in the age of coronavirus.
April 2020
Why the tag team of conservatives and corporations keeps winning
Conservatives have long been clear about what they want. Progressives have focused on specific issues and campaigns and remained silent on the ideas that unite us.
April 2020
For-profit online education company K12 Inc. aims ads at children as stock price climbs
Our pick of recent news about the privatization of public education and the parents, students, teachers, and communities fighting back.
April 2020
Koch-funded think tank says for-profit online schools are “what the future of learning looks like”
Cashing in on Kids is In the Public Interest's pick of recent news about the privatization of public education.
April 2020
The Anti-Government Echo Chamber
A brief pulling together examples of how corporate figures, right-wing organizations, and conservative politicians talk about the role of government—or the lack thereof—in American life.
April 2020
The charter school industry is vying for federal bailout money
Cashing in on Kids is In the Public Interest‘s pick of recent news about the privatization of public education and the communities fighting back. Not a subscriber? Sign up. Make sure to like us on Facebook and [...]
April 2020
Online learning shouldn’t be an excuse to privatize public education
Here’s our pick of recent news about the effort to privatize public education in California and the families, students, and teachers fighting back. Not a subscriber? Sign up here. Online learning shouldn’t be [...]
April 2020
Congress just gave cheap, high-speed internet access to everyone. April Fools’.
Wouldn’t publicly owned and operated internet come in handy right about now? With so many students learning online and so many people working from home, wouldn’t that be nice? Americans pay more than almost anyone else [...]
April 2020
As the coronavirus crisis unfolds, we must #ProtectALLWorkers
we can’t forget about the teachers educating kids online, the postal workers sorting our mail, and the millions of other public workers still on the job. [...]
March 2020
The 40-year corporate attack on government made the coronavirus crisis worse
Many were appalled when then-White House chief strategist Steve Bannon framed the Trump administration’s agenda in its early days as the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” Appalled about Bannon’s [...]
March 2020
To slow down coronavirus, we need a public health approach that’s truly ‘public’
Protecting the public health of all us requires protecting the health of each of us, without exception.
March 2020
Unions helped stop the spread of Ebola. They’re trying again with coronavirus.
During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, unionized medical interns, residents, and fellows spearheaded patient care plans at hospitals nationwide.
March 2020
Congressman confronts Education Secretary Betsy DeVos about charter school failures
Cashing in on Kids is In the Public Interest's pick of recent news about the privatization of public education.
February 2020
Washington State is about to kick out the bottled water industry
Americans purchase some 50 billion bottles of water every year. That’s more than 95,000 a minute! All that water comes from our public water systems and groundwater. In other words, the bottled water [...]
February 2020
Michael Bloomberg has spent big on pushing charter schools in California
Our pick of recent news about the effort to privatize public education in California and the families, students, and teachers fighting back.
February 2020
Black men with prostate cancer are twice as likely to die as white men. Except those with VA health [...]
Go figure. When African American men don’t experience delays in diagnosis or treatment, they survive just as often as white men.
February 2020
Bay Area charter school finally scraps enrollment preference helping wealthier students
In the Public Interest's pick of recent news about the effort to privatize public education in California and the families, students, and teachers fighting back.
February 2020