Avery Building at the Round Rock Higher Education Center (Macuser1112/Wikimedia)

The Texas State University’s student newspaper The Star reports that the Round Rock Higher Education campus has outsourced its facilities and custodial services. Outside companies’ employees, The Star reported, do not have to go through the process of becoming state employees, and the employers can “hire and fire employees without dealing with state paperwork.”

In addition to outsourcing custodial staff, university officials are considering outsourcing parking facilities operations, too.

Texas State has contracted with Chartwells for its foodservice, which also handles staffing for university’s partnerships with companies like Starbucks, Chick-fil-A and Panda Express.

According to its website, Chartwells offers “an exciting range of educational tools that help your students make wise, informed decisions.” The company’s clients inclue several universities across the nation, including Texas’ Angelo State University, Lamar University, and the University of Texas at Dallas.

The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported in July that Del Mar College had joined Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in outsourcing its custodial staff and groundskeepers, replacing 17 full-time custodians, five full-time groundskeepers and 66 part-time employees. The school reportedly expected the change to save $720,000 annually.

TAMU-CC replaced its 57-member cleaning crew and expects to save $200,000 annually. The university contracted with Service Solutions of Knoxville, Tenn., which describes itself as “the premium provider of cleaning and facilities services”

Kilgore College, a community college in East Texas, outsourced some of its custodial staff to Marcis & Associates earlier this year. The school’s student newspaper reported that its board of trustees made the decision as a cost-cutting measure.

While online education has been a part of several colleges’ model for decreasing cost and increasing revenue, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board records, show outsourcing has been another popular cost-cutting measure across the state, covering everything from campus bookstores and computer services to student housing and administrative services.

Customers calling 800 numbers are often transferred overseas, and in such cases the bill would mandate that callers be told where their calls were rerouted.

Companies would also be required to certify to the Federal Trade Commission annually that they were complying with the requirement, and face penalties if they did not certify.

“This bill will not only serve to maintain call center jobs currently in the United States, but also provide a reason for companies that have already outsourced jobs to bring them back,” Schumer said in statement.

And that might be true, but don’t expect the investor class to jump on board. (And don’t expect Wall Street, which Schumer represents, to be pleased either.)

The president “meant to put the kibosh on the GOP’s favorite method for spreading the wealth around,” Frank writes, noting the astronomical growth of federal spending under former President George W. Bush, paired with a decrease in the number of federal government employees who could make sure those contracts were actually doing what they were supposed to. The failure of Parsons Corp. to finish building more than 20 of the 150 medical clinics it was hired to construct in Iraq is one just one prime example Frank highlights.

But as I wrote in my story posted today, Obama will have his work cut out for him, as he confronts a Congress that’s still ready to cave to government contractors when they lobby hard enough. That’s evidently why the Senate dropped the requirement that the House version of the stimulus bill included, and which House members touted as signifying a new era in government transparency:  the online publication of all those new government contracts.

So what happened to that?  Well, government contractors didn’t like it. And they pushed Congress hard enough until they got it removed.

President Obama is absolutely right that “far too often, [government] spending is plagued by massive cost overruns, outright fraud, and the absence of oversight and accountability.”

Making the actual contracts (and sub-contracts) available for everyone to see — as Congress originally promised — would go a long way to put a stop to that.

Today, Mellencamp cut a new radio ad for the Indiana market  that lays out a detailed case against Sen. John McCain’s economic platform.

Obama, shown at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in September, is pushing hard to win back a state that reelected President Bush by 21 points. (Photo: Obama Flickr.)

The ad opens and closes with a reference to Mellencamp’s hit song “Small Town” and criticizes McCain for supporting policies that shipped “thousands of Hoosier jobs overseas.”

Mellencamp has fused his music with politics before. During this year’s Democratic primary, he played at rallies for John Edwards, which were a hit. But when he invited Edwards to appear at a regular concert, some ticket holders were dismayed.

It is remarkable that Obama is competitive enough to visit Indiana in the homestretch of the campaign. The state re-elected President George W. Bush by a whopping 21 points, but it has swung toward Obama in recent polls.  With small towns, hard times and John Mellencamp in tow, Obama’s message may be resonating.

Sen. McCain thinks the economic policies of George W. Bush are just right for America… Just yesterday, Sen. McCain strongly defended the Bush policy of lavishing tax cuts on corporations that ship American jobs overseas. He made the peculiar argument that the best way to stop companies from shipping jobs overseas is to give more tax cuts to companies that ship jobs overseas. More tax cuts for job outsourcers. That’s what Sen.  McCain proposed as his answer to outsourcing. He said that’s – quote – “simple fundamental economics.”

Obama anchored his critique to that “fundamental economics” line:

Well, Indiana, my opponent may call that “fundamental economics,” but we know that’s just another name for the Wall-Street-first-Main-Street- last economic philosophy we’ve had for the past eight years – and that’s fundamentally wrong. If Sen. McCain wants to defend tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, that’s his choice. But I say, let’s end tax cuts for companies that ship American jobs overseas, and give them to companies that create good jobs right here in Indiana — in the United States of America.

The Democratic nominee also got folksy while tweaking tax loopholes:

By the way, did you know that there’s a building in the Cayman Islands that supposedly houses 18,000 corporations. That’s either the biggest building or the biggest tax scam on record. And I think we know which one it is. That’s the system my opponent defends. That’s the system he wants to preserve. Well, Indiana, we’ve tried it John McCain’s way. We’ve tried it George Bush’s way. And we’re here today to say enough is enough. We can’t afford four more years of their “fundamental economics.” That’s why I’m running for president of the United States of America.

These passages aren’t that remarkable, but they are new at a time when Obama’s campaign has been marked by its strict discipline in repeating the same message, same speech and same ads.  Yet the “fundamental economics” talk, according to Obama’s aides, was just too good to pass up.

In a quiet announcement made earlier this month, the Bush administration said it has canceled plans to outsource the development of an IT system under the new GI Bill, which became law in June.

The Veterans Affairs Dept. had previously claimed that a private contractor would be required to get the new claims-screening system up and running by the statutory August 2009 deadline. But veterans groups and some lawmakers blasted that plan, saying the VA was better equipped to do the job itself.

Those critics can rest easy. In a statement issued Oct. 13, VA Sec. James B. Peake said the agency simply didn’t receive enough proposals from “qualified” private contractors to continue with its outsourcing plans.

“Many private contractors were apparently reluctant to offer proposals because of external misconceptions as to the scope of the work involved,” Peake said. “While it is unfortunate that we will not have the technical expertise from the private sector available to assist us in developing the information-technology solution, the VA can and will deliver the benefits program on time.”

These are curious sentiments coming from Peake, for at least three reasons.

First, if the VA can do the task on its own, why was there ever a need for the outsourcing plan?

Second,  he  seems to imply that the private sector is more competent in its technical know-how than the department he runs — something disputed by veterans groups and other critics of the outsourcing plan.

Finally, until last October, Peake was chief operating officer and chief medical officer of QTC Management, Inc. — an enormous health-benefits contractor that was widely believed to be in contention for the IT-development job for VA. (QTC, on its Web site, claims to be “the largest private provider of government-outsourced occupational health, and injury and disability examination services in the nation.”)

The company is now headed by Anthony J. Principi, who was George W. Bush’s first VA secretary, serving from 2001 to 2005.

So, does the VA’s recent announcement mean that QTC isn’t qualified, or didn’t bid? The VA isn’t saying, and QTC didn’t return calls either.

Meanwhile, veterans groups don’t care, applauding the decision regardless of the reason. In an Oct. 13 statement, American Legion National Commander David K. Rehbein said that VA employees are best suited for the task because they have the most experience working directly with veterans. “The VA employs IT personnel with intimate knowledge of how to best serve the veterans’ community,” Rehbein said.

Now it’s up to the folks at the agency to prove him right.