Children

Profiting from the Poor: Outsourcing Social Services Puts Most Vulnerable at Risk

-- by Nick Surgey and Katie Lorenze

In a story most in the media missed, protestors gathered under the dome at the Mississippi state capitol earlier this year to oppose a bill that would allow the state Department of Human Services (DHS) to privatize everything from child protective services to nutrition programs for the elderly.

ALECexposed: George Zimmerman's Criminal History Includes Alleged Violence and Temper (Audio and New Documents)

George Zimmerman -- the Florida man who shot teenager Trayvon Martin to death -- has landed in the news again, after a panicked 9-1-1 call Monday from Shellie Zimmerman in which she told a police dispatcher she was "really scared" because her husband had threatened "that he's going to shoot us," accosted her father causing his father-in-law's glasses to fall to the ground and injuring his nose, and grabbed her iPad from her and "then smashed it and cut it with a pocket knife," among other things. (Audio available here.)

"Pandora's Lunchbox" -- Ingredients in Processed Food Products May Surprise You

"The vitamin D in your milk ... is almost surely a derivative -- after many chemical stages -- from lanolin from Australian sheep wool, concocted in a factory in China. ... Vitamin A, is often synthesized from acetone, a principal ingredient in nail polish remover," notes George Kenney based on his interview with Melanie Warner, a former writer for the New York Times.

Wisconsin Budget Includes $1 Million Taxpayer Giveaway for Well-Funded Teach for America

Wisconsin's 2013-2015 biennial budget sits on Governor Walker's desk awaiting his signature. Included in the budget is a provision allocating $1 million in taxpayer funds over the next two years to the controversial education organization Teach for America.

New Report Exposes Bradley Foundation Funding Behind “Massive” Campaign to Promote School Privatization

In a new report, entitled "P is for Payoff: Inside the Bradley Foundation's Campaign to Privatize Education in Wisconsin," the non-profit activist group One Wisconsin Now has detailed the Bradley Foundation's funding of a coordinated campaign to promote school privatization in Wisconsin and across the nation.

Taxpayer-Enriched Companies Back Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education, its Buddy ALEC, and Their "Reforms"

This week in Washington, DC, Jeb Bush's "Foundation for Excellence in Education" (FEE) is meeting just five blocks away from the post-election conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the controversial corporate bill mill working on profitizing public education among other legislative changes, but the ties between the two groups are even closer.

Corrections Corporation of America Used in Drug Sweeps of Public School Students

An unsettling trend appears to be underway in Arizona: the use of private prison employees in law enforcement operations.

The state has graced national headlines in recent years as the result of its cozy relationship with the for-profit prison industry. Such controversies have included the role of private prison corporations in SB 1070 and similar anti-immigrant legislation disseminated in other states; a 2010 private prison escape that resulted in two murders and a nationwide manhunt; and a failed bid to privatize nearly the entire Arizona prison system.

"Won't Back Down" Film Pushes ALEC Parent Trigger Proposal

-- by Mary Bottari and Sara Jerving

Well-funded advocates of privatizing the nation's education system are employing a new strategy this fall to enlist support for the cause. The emotionally engaging Hollywood film "Won't Back Down" -- set for release September 28 -- portrays so-called "Parent Trigger" laws as an effective mechanism for transforming underperforming public schools. But the film's distortion of the facts prompts a closer examination of its funders and backers and a closer look at those promoting Parent Trigger as a cure for what ails the American education system.

Looking for Kids' Books? Avoid This Propaganda

Did you know that genetic engineering (GE) "is helping to improve the health of the Earth and the people who call it home"? A trade group funded by Monsanto wants your kids to believe it.

USDA to Serve Kids More "Pink Slime"

A product made by grinding up connective tissue from cows and beef scraps that used to be made into dog food is too disgusting to serve at McDonald's, Burger King or Taco Bell, which have all dropped it due to public pressure, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) thinks it's fine to serve in school lunches. The USDA plans to buy seven million pounds of the "Lean Finely Textured Beef" (LFTB) from Beef Products Inc. (BPI) and serve it to school children this spring.

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