Featured Article
Shift: How Taxpayers Began Reclaiming Control of their Public Services June 2014In 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.
Featured Article
Race to the Bottom: How Outsourcing Public Services Rewards Corporations and Punishes the Middle Class June 2014Who’s The Boss: Restoring Accountability for Labor Standards in Outsourced Work
Lead companies that outsource distance themselves from the labor-intensive parts of their businesses and their responsibilities for those workers. [...]
May 2014
Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
This report echos the warning issued by the OIG and to inform the public and lawmakers of the mounting risk that an inadequately regulated charter industry presents to our communities and taxpayers.
May 2014
Do Poor Kids Deserve Lower-Quality Education Than Rich Kids? Evaluating School Privatization [...]
This report evaluates the “blended learning” model of education exemplified by Rocketship and seeks to understand how the “school accountability” legislation debated during the most recent legislative session would [...]
April 2014
Backgrounder: The Cost of Private Prisons
The private prison industry claims that governments can save money by privatizing prisons, but what does the evidence actually indicate? This backgrounder summarizes recent research and state reports related to private [...]
April 2014
Overlooking Oversight: A Lack of Oversight in the Garden State is Placing New Jersey Residents and [...]
Click here for Full ReportDirect Link Governments and to some extent scholars have long treated contract oversight as a trivial or at best mundane sideline to broader issues of privatization. This is a critical mistake. In [...]
March 2014
The Decision to Contract Out: Understanding the Full Economic and Social Impacts
While many studies have examined the risks to government in contracting (such as uncertainties about costs or quality) there has been less attention to the broader social and economic effects of contracting.
March 2014
Social Impact Bonds: Overview and Considerations
This paper provides background information and a framework to help respond to the question of whether a SIB would be a good way to expand funding for a particular intervention or population in a given state or community.
March 2014
More Dangerous, More Costly: An Analysis of Transportation Outsourcing
By analyzing safety inspection and financial data gathered by Minnesota state agencies, this report finds that outsourcing transportation services leads, on average, to higher safety inspection failure rates and higher [...]
March 2014
Featured Article
Infrastructure Justice: Building Equity into Infrastructure Financing January 2014At Our Expense: Federal Contractors that Harm Workers Also Shortchange Taxpayers
New analysis from the Center for American Progress Action Fund shows that contracting with companies with egregious records of workplace violations also frequently results in poor performance of government contracts.
December 2013
Creating Scandals Instead of Jobs: The Failures of Privatized State Economic Development Agencies
This report details the litany of scandals created by the advent of privatized state economic development agencies.
October 2013
Death Yards: Continuing Problems with Arizona’s Correctional Health Care
This report explores the grossly inadequate medical, mental health and dental care provided by private contractors in Arizona's corrections system.
October 2013
Looting the Urban Commonwealth: Privatization and the Politics of Austerity
This paper describes how privatization, the turning over of operational control of socially important goods to private parties, has far larger social costs than are recognized in the way its promoters frame the debate.
September 2013
Featured Article
Making the Grade? Questions to Ask About School Services Privatization September 2013The Impact of Outsourcing on the Middle Class and Communities of Color
Recent research shows that outsourcing public services to private companies and Wall Street banks increases income inequality and adversely impacts communities of color. This fact sheet explains how outsourcing degrades the [...]
August 2013
The Dirty Thirty: Nothing to Celebrate About 30 Years of Corrections Corporation of America
This report compiles 30 of the most egregious examples of CCA's record of prisoner abuse, poor pay and benefits to employees, scandals, escapes, riots, and lawsuits.
June 2013
Backgrounder: Insourcing
This backgrounder brief provides examples of cases where, when cost savings aren't realized or service quality declines, many governmental entities are turning to reverse privatization, or "insourcing," to bring contracted [...]
May 2013
Underwriting Bad Jobs: How Our Tax Dollars are Funding Low-Wage Work and Fueling Inequality
This report explores private sector services providing public services and how, through federal contracts and other funding, our tax dollars are fueling the low-wage economy and exacerbating inequality. [...]
May 2013
Prisons, Jobs and Privatization
This study of prison privatization finds that private prisons impede employment growth in local communities and highlights the significant reduction in prison staffing where privatization is quickly growing and high employee [...]
January 2013
Transparency in City Spending: Rating the Availability of Online Government Data in America’s Largest Cities
This report examines the quality of transparency of city spending in America's 30 largest cities. It notes the availability of spending information and ease of access to this information, including online databases with [...]
January 2013
Roadblocks to Reform: Perils for Georgia’s Criminal Justice System
This report evaluates current practices of Georgia's Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform, including the contracting out of government responsibilities of running correctional facilities to private companies. It [...]
November 2012
Eight Questions to Ask About the Future of the Ohio Turnpike
In 2011, the State of Ohio spent $2.85 million to commission KPMG to analyze different possibilities for borrowing against future toll revenue to the Ohio Turnpike, including privatization. This report considers the [...]
November 2012
Essential Public Interest Protections for Prison Privatization Contracts
This report includes a list of public protections that should be included in contracts when a state considers prison privatization. It examines crucial issues where a private company may have different goals and priorities [...]
October 2012
Leaving Taxpayers in the Dark:The Urgent Need to Improve Transparency and Accountability in [...]
This report examines the ability of the public to access subsidy recipient information in taxpayer-financed economic development programs. It finds that online transparency has gotten worse despite promises from state [...]
October 2012
Six Reasons Why Government Contracting Can Negatively Impact Quality Jobs and Why it Matters for Everyone
This paper summarizes recent research that shows how the public sector provides quality middle-class jobs, and describes how government privatization eliminates these good jobs without much savings to the taxpayer, and [...]
October 2012
Operation Streamline: Costs and Consequences
This report details the costs and consequences of "zero-tolerance" immigration programs on the U.S.-Mexico border, generally referred to under the moniker "Operation Streamline", which require all undocumented [...]
September 2012
Privately Operated Federal Prisons for Immigrants: Expensive. Unsafe. Unnecessary..
This report chronicles the May 2012 Adams County Correctional Center uprising in Natchez, Mississippi, a private for-profit facility operated by Corrections Corporation of America, under contract with the Federal Bureau of [...]
September 2012
Profiting from Public Dollars: How ALEC and Its Members Promote Privatization of Government [...]
This report exposes ALEC's extensive privatization agenda by identifying ALEC model bills that promote the handing over of public services and assets to corporations, matching those model bills with related state [...]
September 2012
Predatory Privatization
This report examines how the push to privatize public services and assets "often reduces the quality of services, burdens taxpayers and threatens democratic government." Stories of destructive predatory privatization noted [...]
August 2012
The Public Cost of Private Equity Takeovers of U.S. Water Infrastructure
This fact sheet discusses the push for water privatization, some of the key problems with private equity takeovers of water systems, and offers several alternative solutions for communities dealing with fiscal crisis. [...]
August 2012
Private Equity, Public Inequity.
This fact sheet discusses the push for water privatization, some of the key problems with private equity takeovers of water systems, and offers several alternative solutions for communities dealing with fiscal crisis.
August 2012
Backgrounder Brief: Profiting from Public Dollars – ALEC’s Privatization Agenda
This backgrounder brief explores ALEC's privatization agenda in a variety of sectors with a particular focus on what its corporate members stand to gain from increased privatization.
July 2012
Municipalization Guide: How U.S. communities can secure local public control of privately owned [...]
This guide provides an overview of the process and a number of logistical considerations involved in government purchases of privately owned water and sewer systems.
July 2012
Dollars and Detainees: The Growth of For-Profit Detention
This report describes the growth of for-profit immigration detention, including key concerns including unsubstantiated claims of cost savings, problems with oversight high staff turnover, and transparency problems.
July 2012
Featured Article
Ask the Right Questions Before Privatizing June 2012Asking the Right Questions: A Guide for Municipalities Considering P3s.
This guide is designed to answer questions municipal councillors and civic officials might have about public-private partnerships (P3s or PPPs).
June 2012
Shining a Light on the Arizona Commerce Authority
A new report, Shining a Light on the Arizona Commerce Authority,examines how transparent the Arizona Commerce Authority has been with the grant and tax credit programs it oversees. The report, released today by the Arizona [...]
May 2012
Prison Bed Profiteers: How Corporations Are Reshaping Criminal Justice in the U.S.
This new report focuses on the disconnect between claims made by supporters of privatization and the true impact of the private prison industry. The report provides jurisdictions, communities, and advocates with information [...]
May 2012
Is Administration Leaner in Charter Schools? Resource Allocation in Charter and Traditional Public [...]
The study, which examines school spending in Michigan, found that charter schools spend nearly $800 more per pupil on administration and $1,100 less on instruction, said David Arsen, MSU professor of education and lead [...]
April 2012
Leasing Sovereignty: on State Infrastructure Contracts
This paper focuses on one of the more troubling features of infrastructure contracts: non-compete clauses. The relevant legal principles include the Contracts Clause, the reserved powers doctrine, legal prohibitions on [...]
March 2012
Insourcing: How Bringing Back Essential Federal Jobs Can Save Taxpayer Dollars and Improve Services
Insourcing often results in the individual contractor being hired to do the same work in the very same office under a more direct chain of command. Eliminating the need to pay for the additional layer of corporate [...]
March 2012
Featured Article
Floodlights Instead of Flashlights: Sunshine Laws Out of Step with Government Contracting Leaves Public and Lawmakers in the Dark March 2012Pitfalls and Promises: The Real Risks to Residents and Taxpayers of Privatizing Prisons and Prison Services in Michigan
This report recommends that Michigan lawmakers investigate the failed promises of prison privatization in Michigan and other states before rushing to pass proposals under consideration. The report cautions against prison [...]
February 2012
An Assessment of the Risks and Benefits of Prison Privatization
Drawing upon the wide range of research, this paper reports on outcomes in the areas of cost savings, public and institutional safety, recidivism, impact on state economic development, and the possible influence [...]
January 2012
Too Good to be True: Private Prisons in America
The available evidence does not point to any substantial benefits to privatizing prisons. Although there are instances where private prisons result in small savings, the structure and demands of for-profit prisons appear [...]
January 2012