The City Paper and WPLN have stories up this morning about custodians in Nashville Metro Schools fighting for their economic security.
At issue is Director of Schools Jesse Register’s proposed $633.3 million budget, which seeks to ease the district’s projected $35 million shortfall by outsourcing custodial work, currently carried out by more than 600 Metro school employees, to a private company. The move would save an estimated $5 million.“It’s not right that they’re taking our jobs and sourcing them out,” said Lucille Moore, head custodian at Isaiah T. Creswell Middle School. “It’s not fair that we’ll have to work for $7 to $8 an hour for an outside company.”
If anyone understands the budgetary problems facing public schools it’s me. Both my parents, two aunts, and an uncle have either worked for, or are currently working in public schools. No one, especially me, wants to see money taken away from the school’s primary mission of educating our children.
At the same time, this outsourcing business is a race to the bottom. I don’t know what custodians in Nashville Metro Schools make, but I can gather that the pay they would make from the company that would be servicing the district is a good deal less than they’re making now, and the benefits are likely non-existent.
When public institutions do things like this, they are ultimately hurting themselves and the entire system around them. 600 people making less money means 600 people spending less money. In Tennessee, a state that relies heavily on a sales tax, that’s a big deal.
Further, in these tough economic times, the notion of laying off, or cutting salaries by government agencies and public institutions is a signal to the populace that these same entities have checked out of the reality. The people they serve are struggling too, and while these “cost cutting measures” may help the bottom line of the institution in the short term, the long term implications ultimately provide little benefit. It’s a circling the bowl situation that will only stop until there’s no water left.
This is not an indictment of the companies that currently do jobs that were once done by government employees. The reality is, these companies never would have existed had government not voiced a need, or want for their services. This is an indictment of government seeking short-term solutions instead of tackling the real problem.
You may not see how outsourcing custodians, a job that is not directly related to education, in the public schools effects the mission of the schools, but ask yourself this, where does it end? Today it’s the custodians, tomorrow, who knows? The Project Triangle tells us you can have it good, fast, or cheap…pick two. If we consistently pick fast and cheap over the public “good”, which includes providing a living wage for people, we will suffer the consequences.
Looking at the unemployment, and underemployment situation in the nation right now, I think it’s clear many of those consequences have come to roost.
[...] Edited to add: See Ross. [...]
[...] City Paper, WKRN News 2, Tennessean, Fox 17 News, Tiny Cat Pants, Speak to Power Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Manila Standard Today: [...]
Thanks for talking about this, Steve. It is an outrage that Metro is talking about privatizing some 700 workers who are barely getting by as it is now. If these folks are outsourced, they will take a major cut in pay and they will lose the health insurance and pension benefits they have now. That's assuming, of course, that they'll even get to keep their job.
For the record, Metro tried using a private sector contractor for custodial work in the early 90's and it was a disaster. The work wasn't getting done, the schools were dirty, there were huge equipment and supply problems, and the minimum wage workers who had no benefits and no stake in the system, stole property out of the schools left and right. After all that, the district ended up not even saving any money and Metro ended up having to get rid of the contractor. The city learned its lesson and ended up making these positions be Metro jobs so they could keep things under control.
It has also been rumored (but not proven… yet) that Jesse Register, the Metro schools director, has a financial stake in ServiceMaster, a private company who does this kind of custodial work for school districts. For the record, Register outsourced school custodians to ServiceMaster at his previous jobs in Chattanooga and in North Carolina.
To be continued…
[...] It Is a Race to the Bottom | Speak to Power [...]
[...] There is a system of patronage that has been a part of the business world since before the industrial revolution that seeks to maintain these “managers” rather than recognize that management might be the problem. With each new cycle of layoffs, the short-term prospects of business may be saved, but the total economic impact of the loss of these jobs to the community leads to a downward spiral that ultimately leads again to more layoffs, more negative economic impact, and less opportunity for the people who have lost their jobs due to this perpetual race to the bottom. [...]
[...] in March I wrote about privatizing school custodians in Nashville Public Schools. According to the City Paper, less than half have been hired by the private contractor. [...]