Texas A&M Looks for Savings, Finds a Fight
Sometimes, you go looking for a fight.
John Sharp, the new Texas A&M University System chancellor, is out to privatize services at the main campus in College Station, and he’s getting the kind of pushback that is pure gold for someone in his position.
He says he is digging for savings that can be used for education, faculty and other things people think of when thinking about college.
That leaves everybody else fighting for jobs that he says they won’t lose.
It’s a classic John Sharp joint. I ought to know — I worked for him for ...
Comments (14)
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Privatization does not save money.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Isn't Sharp the guy who crafted the Perry Tax Plan of 2006 that hasn't worked out so well for public education in Texas?
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
http://eyeonwilliamson.org/?p=10649
Pamela Baggett-Wallis via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Karen is correct: Privatization does NOT SAVE money. As soon as private business is involved, there it a natural need for profit. That profit can only come from reduced value to the end user.
Pamela Baggett-Wallis via Texas Tribune on Facebook
By golly, there really is an Izoro, Texas. the town was renamed Izoro after Izoro Gillam, the daughter of a prominent settler. Who knew?
Another 99%
Lets see, the Conservatives are always pushing for privitizing everything, yet when it comes to their programs........HANDS OFF ? And admit it will raise prices? Yes the American taxpayers knows and sees many programs where that has happened, say, Military Spending, for example. Hundreds of $billion. How about withdrawing every penny from the Bush Library. Privitize that.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Of course there is but there isn't much there now. The post office was closed a couple of years ago. Privatization also takes away citizen's/public rights to obtain info/transparency and control.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
This is nothing more than crony capitalism.
Leon Drozd
This should be fun to watch. Texas has sold itself to the developers. One look at that Texas A&M campus today and it is apparent that this has been going on for quite some time. Maybe those old Aggies learned more in La Grange than they did on campus.
Higher education is for sale. Is outsourcing is the cure to weak fiscal management or a way of covering it up? What do they teach in that Mays Business School these days? Is Texas A&M so dependent on private sector business that it can manage its own services? What about jobs for students and their families? What about affordable higher education?
Sharp is a politician whose modus operandi is to give out candy to business. All he is doing is using this problem to pay someone else to do his jjob and make him look good for a short term metric.
Alana Carpenter-Moore
As with a personal budget, sometimes you just cannot cut corners anymore. In the personal budget, the cable goes, you buy generic food and you are conservative with the lights. Sometimes that's not enough because costs continue to rise. Sometimes you just have to make the hard decisions and find another source of income, no matter how much you don't want to.
If we really want DECENT education, we have to be willing to pay for it, not just as an individual but as a state.
It's time for Texas to face facts and discuss the dreaded 'T' word,
russ huebel
The system is choking with administrators, assistant administrators, associate administrators, etc. That is where the money is.
Tom Sweazea via Texas Tribune on Facebook
"Sharp speculates that anyone who loses a campus job will get a job with the private firm that takes over." ---WTF?
Kathi Thomas via Texas Tribune on Facebook
When things are privitized, they're done to "save money." The way to save money is to cut costs- that is by either lowering the quality of the product or cutting the pay and benefits of those doing the work. If they were already getting as good of deals as possible on the products (which may or may not have been happening, depeding if someone was getting kickbacks) then the only way to cut is in people. It didn't go so well with the state when they fired State employees and hired Accenture to do the enrollment for the state program, due to the poor trainging and low pay. Will we see that at A&M, too?
alan erwin
the savings will be in the form of reduced employee benefits for the state. this savings will be eliminated by the sure-to-happen cost increases to the state after the initial privatization process. After all, we can't expect these businesses do this stuff for free.