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COLDWATER—Clinton is not the only school district to privatize in recent months. In fact, since the Legislature changed the law in 1994 to give Michigan schools more freedom to competitively contract for school support services, the trend has been unmistakably in the direction of more privatization efforts. The school district in the southern Michigan town of Coldwater is one of many recent examples.
When the students in Coldwater ate lunch on the first day of school this fall, they dined on food prepared by Canteen Food Service. The private company had been managing the schools' food services since 1995, but with district employees. Under a new one-year contract, nonunion Canteen was given authority to hire its own staff to run the food program for all of the Coldwater schools. Local UAW workers have protested the move. Canteen was the choice of the Michigan Education Association, when it contracted out food service for its East Lansing headquarters.
Meanwhile, the board of the Grand Ledge schools in mid-Michigan voted to contract for one year with Canteen as well. Among five reasons given for the decision were these: "the company's proven record for improving lunch-program participation; the company's effective and accurate monthly financial reports; and the company's agreement to maintain and improve Grand Ledge's food services programs."
In July, the Bay City Public Schools announced that its officials were exploring the idea of hiring a private company to train school building custodians. The Bay City Times reported, "In their bidding proposals, Caravan/Knight Facilities Management Services, based in Chicago, and ServiceMaster, based in Downers Grove, Illinois, claim they could save the board about $396,412 and $132,430, respectively, in cleaning costs per year."
