Sen Warren: I'd like to say hi to the Carmens Union, but they're outside fighting for their jobs

.@elizabethforma@ 'I'd like to say hi to the @carmensunion589, but they're outside fighting for their jobs' #mapoli pic.twitter.com/ghbjKbizBZ

— Carl Nilsson (@NilssonCarl) September 7, 2015

This is how it starts... around the edges. Who could reasonably object? It's just a handful of routes that are expensive to run on a cost per mile basis. These can be outsourced to a private company.

This is how charter schools started, too. They were going to pioneer new more effective pedagogy and management technique, then show public schools how to do it better. That was their argument but it was not the truth. Charlie Baker was very much a part of the effort to get charter schools legislation passed in Mass. as co-director of the Pioneer Institute, a Koch-funded libertarian "think tank."

Republicans love privatization because their friends who have capital to invest can profit from a ready-made business opportunity. And everyone knows corporations are people. Sadly most securities in the US are owned by folks in the top 50%. So corporations are half the people. And half the people-- the wealthy half-- benefit from privatization. If it's a private company then a few private investors profit.

After Katrina hit, the Bush admin and wealthy coteries pushed to make New Orleans a 100% charter school district. Wait, 100% what about he rationale for charter schools?

And when charter advocates fight to expand charters in Mass, they do it in low-income districts like Boston, New Bedford, Fitchburg and Lowell, not Weston, Newton and Wellesley. Charter expansion de-funds the public system depriving it of enrichment programs, wrap around services and money to do the kinds of things kids in Weston and Wellesly get to do. As expansion continues, district neighborhood schools are forced to consolidate, some close, and students are displaced. Meanwhile, hedge fund managers who invest in charter schools double their investment over a period of about five years.

The Washington state supreme court recently struck down charter schools as unconstitutional based a constitutional requirement that common schools be accountable to the electorate, such as via an elected school board. Stay tuned.

@SenWarren receives a standing ovation as she greets attendees at @BostonUnionCity #LaborDay Breakfast #1u #mapoli pic.twitter.com/Gfvfkka4uW

— Massachusetts AFLCIO (@massaflcio) September 7, 2015