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Please use or customize the sample text below to send a strong message to all members of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School Board and urge them to reverse the outsource.

The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District Board of Education recently proposed outsourcing 76 night lead and swing custodian jobs under the guise of cost savings to the District. This misguided attempt is nothing short of union-busting and will have immediate and devastating impacts on employees and their families. 

Here's what outsourcing actually means:

  1. Outsourcing  means that school staff and the public lose control over essential school services. The goal of a for-profit contractor is profit; the goal of school district employees is to provide a high-quality service for schools, students, staff, and the community.  These goals don't always overlap. Outsourcing means giving up the district's control over these essential services.  
  2. Outsourcing leads to lower-quality services. Contractors have a financial incentive to reduce their costs so they can maximize their profit. Reducing costs comes in the form of reducing the number of workers and hours assigned to a task, using inferior materials and supplies, providing less training and oversight to workers, and any other thing they can think of to cut costs. All of these lead to a lower quality of service than staff and students deserve. 
  3. Outsourcing means a loss of transparency and accountability. The school board and the school district are accountable to the public: students and their families, staff, and the community at large. A private company contracting with the district is not required to share even basic information with the public.  
  4. Loss of institutional expertise. Typically, school support staff are likely to dedicate their entire careers to their profession until retirement. Privatizing often leads to the replacement of less experienced workers, less trained workers, and less connection to the school community.