University of Wisconsin–Madison

ProGov21 Policy Library

Policy Area
Policy Area Scrollable Checkbox List
Material Type
Material Type Scrollable Checkbox List
Level
Level Scrollable Checkbox List
State
State Scrollable Checkbox List
Source
Source Scrollable Checkbox List
Year
Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2015
Level City or Town, County, State
State(s) All States
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Democracy & Governance, Finance & Procurement
Pay for Success (PFS), or Social Impact Bonds (SIBs), are an alternative private financing model often promoted as cost-free, risk-free silver bullets to support underfunded public services. In PFS and SIB funding models, investors provide the up-front funding for services with the...

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2020
Level City or Town, County
State(s) All States
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Education
The rapid growth in the number of charter schools amounts to the privatization of public education. These schools receive public education money and because of this are often referred to as “public schools,” but this is a mischaracterization. Charter schools are privately operated...

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2016
Level City or Town, State
State(s) All States
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Finance & Procurement
Government contractors are incentivized to cut corners to show that they are a “cheaper” alternative to non-contracted works, often resulting in deception and lack of transparency that harms workers, the public, and the environment, while leading to cost overruns. Public officials...

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2015
Level State
State(s) All States
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Finance & Procurement
This report provides case studies that illustrate how private contractors hide three key types of information: the fees they charge the public, how they spend public funds, and details on the quality of public services. Decision-makers should adopt strong sunshine laws that require...

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2020
Level City or Town
State(s) All States
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Finance & Procurement
While privatization occurs under different names, such as outsourcing, contracting out, and public-private partnership, it always removes a public good from public control and places it under the control of a private entity. The specifics of these deals vary, but the consequences...

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2020
Level City or Town
State(s) All States
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Community Development, Finance & Procurement
While public-private partnerships, or P3’s, have primarily been used in the U.S. for transportation and water projects, the model has recently been used to address infrastructure needs to repair, replace, or build public buildings where government operations take place. Problems with...

Type Fact Sheet or Infographic
Year 2019
Level City or Town, State
State(s) All States
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Finance & Procurement
Too often, public officials propose the privatization of public facilities, public goods, or contracting out vital public services, without getting the basic information that decision-makers and voters need to know to evaluate these transactions. By asking a handful of simple questions...

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2017
Level City or Town
State(s) All States
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Community Development, Finance & Procurement
Public-private partnerships (known as “P3s”) use private capital to finance public infrastructure projects, and should generally be avoided. Private funding of infrastructure is more expensive than public funding and result in the loss of democratic control over public policy decisions,...

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2014
Level City or Town, State
State(s) All States
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Finance & Procurement
This report highlights the impact of state and local governments outsourcing public services on the quality of life for workers and communities. A growing body of evidence, including industry wage data, suggests an alarming trend: outsourcing public services sets off a downward spiral...

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2018
Level City or Town, County
State(s) California
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Education
The unchecked expansion of charter schools in California has led to dire fiscal conditions for the public education system, and public school students are bearing the costs. California’s Charter School Act doesn’t allow school boards to consider how a proposed charter school may impact...

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2019
Level City or Town, State
State(s) All States
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Finance & Procurement
Cities and states nationwide are finding out that the promises of privatization often fail to materialize, and have been increasingly looking at “insourcing,”—that is, bringing a service or asset back under public, democratic control. The common problems of privatization that lead...

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2021
Level State
State(s) Connecticut
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Community Development, Finance & Procurement
In the face of a public health emergency, an economic recession, and widening of social inequities, Connecticut has continues to reduce its public investment in services such as education, healthcare, housing, and transportation. Downsizing the public sector and failing to adequately...

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2016
Level City or Town, State
State(s) All States
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Finance & Procurement
This report outlines the ways in which the privatization of public goods and services has harmed working-class communities and communities of color. Analysis from In The Public Interest identifies five ways mechanisms of privatization that disproportionately hurt poor individuals...

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2020
Level City or Town
State(s) All States
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Community Development, Health, Finance & Procurement
Water privatization has often proven to be harmful to communities, workers, and the environment, and should not be relied on to help municipalities. While many water systems need improvements, corporate control does not provide a solution to provide long-term sustainability, regulatory...

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2018
Level City or Town
State(s) All States
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Community Development, Finance & Procurement
Public-private partnerships (P3s) to build infrastructure, are increasingly structured around “availability payments,” which advocates argue are a better alternative than more traditional revenue-risk contracts. However, availability payments are long-term financial commitments that...

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2018
Level State
State(s) Iowa, Kansas
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Economic Justice, Health
Kansas and Iowa have recently privatized the Medicaid services provided to veterans. The experience of both states highlights the dangers of privatization: veterans programs have suffered cuts in care and diminished oversight and transparency while reducing costs far less than expected....

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2014
Level City or Town
State(s) All States
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Finance & Procurement
As local and state governments increasingly contract out public services that impact the well-being of their community, the need for robust contract oversight is increasing. A lack of oversight has detrimental impacts on the people served by a program or service, and for the public...

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2022
Level City or Town, County, State
State(s) All States
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Finance & Procurement
State and local governments spend approximately $2 trillion on goods and services from the private sector. By establishing progressive procurement and contracting policies, states and localities can leverage this spending to set standards for things like job quality, training, employment...

Type Policy Brief or Report
Year 2021
Level State
State(s) All States, California
Source In the Public Interest
Policy Areas Education
The number of nonclassroom-based charter schools is rapidly growing, but these schools often violate the law and produce poor educational performance. This report provides policy solutions to best safeguard both taxpayer dollars and educational quality by capping the public funding...

Displaying 19 of 19 records.

Remove Entry

Are you sure you want to remove this?

There was an error communicating with the server.

Please try again later.

There was an error while saving your data.

Please try again later.

Error

Please try again later.

Update Page Content

You are leaving the page

Please make sure you saved all of the modules to avoid losing any data.