Deeds suggests privatizing school janitors, food service
By: William C. Flook
Examiner Staff Writer
October 22, 2009
Virginia schools could save money by outsourcing food service and janitors to the private sector, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Creigh Deeds suggested Tuesday.
Deeds slipped the idea into the mix as he explained ways the commonwealth could cut costs in education during the fourth debate of the race.
"Anecdotally -- I know a guy who's in the food service business who says he can save hundreds of millions of dollars or more in public education by privatizing food service and janitorial service," Deeds said. "We have to think innovatively, we've got to be reinventing the process of government."
Deeds, whose candidacy is backed by the Virginia Education Association, has proposed to route $300 million back into classroom instruction by rooting out efficiencies in other areas of spending.
Campaign spokesman Jared Leopold said the privatization idea did not represent a proposal by the Deeds campaign.
"It was an anecdote," he wrote by e-mail.
Deeds surrogates are in the midst of a three-day bus tour touting his education plan, which also includes raising teacher pay to the national average and expanding pre-kindergarten.
How to fund school support staff has been a contentious topic in recent state budget talks, with legislators fighting over whether to make permanent a cap on funding for jobs like janitors, nurses and therapists. The cap would save Virginia about $754 million through fiscal 2012, according to a recent Department of Education report.
