Data Centers and Dictatorship
Friends and Constituents,
It’s been a difficult, bizarre couple weeks. I’m experiencing some brain fog ever since my COVID infection in August, which has been making me think, write, and react more slowly. Yet it feels like there’s massive changes happening at every level of our society, and my schedule has been more full than ever.
At the State and Federal level, Republicans are using Charlie Kirk’s assassination as an excuse for all of their worst policy objectives.
Intentional partisan gerrymandering? Check.
Waging a McCarthy-style witch hunt against political opponents based on their free speech? Check.
Egging on violence against political opponents? Check.
Doing anything in their power to trick us into forgetting that our President appears to be a pedophile on the Epstein list? Check.
Their bad-faith arguments and manipulations are extremely easy to see through, and their fear and desperation is palpable despite all their blustering to the contrary.
The GOP, not content to create a federal secret police force that is not obligated to show badges or identify themselves, is now attempting to censor the media and stop their opponents from voting.
This is no less than an attempt at dictatorship, and all people of conscience should resist it in every peaceful way.
Yet at the local level in Indianapolis, I will give credit where it’s due: a Republican Councilor serving with me on the City Council, Michael-Paul Hart, has been leading the charge against the massive boondoggle proposed data center in Franklin Township. Hart and Councilor Josh Bain are also introducing a resolution opposing AES’s rate increase case that I am asking to cosponsor (though from what I’ve been able to tell, not a single Republican politician at the State OR local level actually testified in front of the utility regulators last month at any of their four field hearings).
We should all support good policy and good governance, regardless of party. I’m proud to support my colleagues in both of these efforts. And we should insist on civility and open debate on the issues, even when our disagreement is deep.
I have three action items for you this week.
1) Do your best to attend the full Council meeting on Monday at 7:00 pm at the City-County Building. We will have the public hearing over the data center, and we need people to witness how Councilors vote.
2) Consider donating a few dollars to help me keep building a new type of politics that refuses to tolerate bad behavior in any party, that doesn’t flinch when standing up against oppression, but that stands together with anyone willing to do the right thing.
3) Read my constituent Bri D’s amazing essay about the connection between data centers and attacks on public education, below. (If you are a constituent and want your piece of writing featured in my email newsletter, hit me up and I’d love to feature you!)
In love and solidarity,
Jesse
Tech Oligarchs are Buying Off Our Schools - This is Not “Development,” It’s the Commodification of Our Futures
Franklin Township Schools’ decision to support Google’s new data center is not a “partnership,” it’s the exploitation of manufactured scarcity, forced by politicians who have deliberately starved public education of funding so that wealthy families get tax breaks and can use public money to send their kids to private schools. Now, they are vulnerable to corporate takeover.
This is no accident. Gov. Mike Braun and his allies, including powerful charter industry players, pushed through SB1 and deep property tax cuts that bleed school budgets dry, and force them to share this smaller pie with privately-held schools. Franklin Township alone expects to lose $2.4 million in a single year. That shortfall is the direct result of policy choices designed to shift wealth upward: tax breaks for the rich and corporations at the expense of public services like schools.
When schools are underfunded, they’re forced to look elsewhere for survival. Enter Google, one of the richest companies in the world, offering “STEM programs” and resources, but only after securing its own generous tax breaks and behind-closed-doors agreements. This is corporate capture dressed up as community investment. And it’s exactly what the charter school industry and other privatizers have been pushing toward for years: dismantle public institutions until they’re so desperate they have to sell off pieces of themselves to survive.
We should call this what it is: austerity politics creating a false sense of scarcity, so that corporations can swoop in and profit. Instead of taxing billion-dollar companies fairly, lawmakers hand out corporate welfare and then tell our schools to make do. Instead of guaranteeing education as a public good, they turn it into a bargaining chip.
Education should never be subject to the whims of the market. Public schools belong to the people, not to Silicon Valley, not to politicians cutting deals in the backrooms of the Statehouse. When we let corporations like Google step in to fill the gaps, we are surrendering democratic control of our schools. Decisions that should belong to parents, teachers, and students end up being made in boardrooms half a country away.
And the costs go beyond money. Franklin Township residents are already alarmed about environmental damage, water use, and farmland being swallowed up by Google’s project. But when schools rely on corporations for survival, who really believes the district will stand up to them? This is how democratic accountability dies: public institutions become dependent on private power, and the community’s voice is completely ignored.
We don’t have to accept this. The solution isn’t to beg tech giants for charity. The solution is to tax those giants fairly, reverse harmful laws like SB1, and fully fund our fully public schools so they never have to make these kinds of deals in the first place.
A society that calls itself democratic should guarantee fully funded, fully public schools in every community. That means prioritizing people over profit, public good over corporate greed. It means rejecting the austerity narrative that says we “can’t afford” good schools unless Google steps in to save us. We can afford it, if we stop giving handouts to the rich and start investing in working families.
If we don’t fight back, Franklin Township won’t be the exception. It will be the model for how public education gets further dismantled piece by piece. And the only winners in that system will be the corporations and the politicians who serve them.
-Bri D.
Jesse’s WEEKLY LOG!
Tuesday 9/2: Therapy. Worked out a bit. Caught up on more correspondence and attended the Black Chuch Coalition’s assembly in my district to discuss public safety, the Sheriff’s ICE contract, and the budget. Checked in with one of the many organizing groups planning on intervening in next year’s elections.
Wednesday 9/3: Had coffee with my wife and a couple constituents to talk politics. Met with a potential candidate for the Statehouse outside of Marion County to share tips. Chatted with some Hogsett admin survivors about next steps for the Council’s work on accountability. Met with a separate survivor of Indianapolis abuse to check in. Joined the Black Church Coalition and other constituents to testify at the Public Safety Committee hearing and encourage the Sheriff to drop his ICE contract.
Thursday 9/4: Got stood up for coffee (and was so grateful to have the time back!). Quick workout. Had an awesome conversation with The Black Briefing podcast. Chatted with the owners of Digs and Heath Outdoors about their frustration with planning / zoning that led to them pulling out of a project in the district. Met with a constituent who has a business idea to more affordably and efficiently fill potholes. Attended the Parks and Recreation Committee meeting to discuss the proposed budget cuts to our Parks. (When I asked how constituents would experience the proposed $200,000 a year cut, the parks director told me that they would take crayons away from children).
Friday 9/5: Caught up on some personal finance issues, plotted out the best ways to structure political groups in the state, and caught up on a ton of emails.
Saturday 9/6: Had coffee with Amy from MADVoters. Put on a small program at the Indy Public Library about civic participation and how the city government works. Picked up some groceries. Had a rare fancy dinner at Union 50 to celebrate my brother-in-law’s college graduation with him.
Sunday 9/7: Tabled in front of the Mass Ave Starbucks with DSA friends to talk public education, socialism, and unions. Met with some friends in the Party for Socialism and Liberation to discuss politics. Caught up on housework.
Monday 9/8: Worked on some Parrhesia law business process updates, prepared for the full Council meeting, joined a ton of awesome leaders from Franklin Township in a protest about the data center, and participated in the full Council meeting. Highlights: I pointed out that Joe Hogsett’s abusive leadership was the real cause of staffing issues at the city (though Councilor Leroy Robinson interrupted me to protect the Mayor).
Tuesday 9/9: Visited the James Whitcomb Riley school, which is an amazing IPS school with awesome arts and music programming. Very brief workout. Planned for and executed a town hall on affordable housing (I’ll be sending out a summary email after I collect a few more pieces of feedback from attendees, but overall it was a great conversation!).
Wednesday 9/10: Coffee and politics chat. Therapy. Met with a constituent to discuss public safety concerns near 10th and Rural. Provided some documents to the Protect Franklin Township leaders. Got stood up for a Google Meet call (and was again very grateful for the time back). Biked to the Public Safety Committee meeting to discuss IMPD and IFD’s budgets. (This was the second Public Safety Committee meeting I attended this month - nearly six total hours, unpaid because Vop Osili and Maggie Lewis refuse to allow me to serve on more committees, so I can only attend as a guest).
Thursday 9/11: Met with the new executive director of Westminster Neighborhood Services, the awesome food pantry and nonprofit in the district, to discuss the needs they are trying to address in the community. Met with an administrator at the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission to discuss our mutual attempts to hold utility companies and developers accountable for damage to alleys, among a few other topics. Attended a Municipal Corporations Committee meeting to hear the budgets for the Capital Improvement Board and Indianapolis Airport Authority.
Friday 9/12: Met with the Director of the Department of Metropolitan Development to discuss Heath Outdoor, my general desire for density and affordable housing, and zoning and permitting that would make things more clear and easy for small developers, as opposed to the giant Hogsett donors who do most of the big development work in the city. Political party chats. Parrhesia work. Met with a new coalition of people that, mark my words, will be the next big thing in Indianapolis politics. Chatted over the phone with a former county party chair about growing DSA and reforming politics across the state.
Saturday 9/13: Board meeting for Citizens Action Coalition. Socialist Social with DSA at the AMP at 16 tech, where I met some new prospective members setting up an IT co-op.
Sunday 9/14: Played board games with a friend, caught up on laundry and housework.
Monday 9/15: Talked with the IndyStar about birds. Therapy appointment. Worked to dig out from the massive amount of emails and texts that had piled up this month. Met with a group of constituents to discuss next steps for the former Women’s Prison site. (Come out to the Beyond the Fence: Vision for the Prison event on October 4th!)
Tuesday 9/16: Therapy. Took my bike in to the shop to work on a faulty sensor. Quick workout (hmm, haven’t done a full workout in a long time - something to note). Talked with a tech CEO from a cool company about the possibility of working very part-time or on a contract basis - doesn’t seem like it’ll work out this time. Went to a really cool Community Asset Mapping activity with The Table Episcopal Church. Took the minutes at our Indy Community Land Trust board meeting. Caught up on a few more emails.
Wednesday 9/17: Coffee and politics. Took the bus downtown. Had coffee with Blythe Potter, a candidate for Secretary of State, and her husband Michael, running for statehouse. Had coffee with a supporter who also works with the Urban Land Institute. Attended the Municipal Corporations Committee meeting, where we heard the budget presentations from IndyGo, the Health and Hospital Corporation, and the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library. Highlights: I pointed out that HHC spent $500k on ads thanking Mike Braun for not cutting their budget - only to watch as Mike Braun cut their budget over $38 million anyway. Attended a fundraising training call from DSA (where I was amused to see my own face and quote in the slide deck).
Thursday 9/18: Had coffee with a supporter who runs a theater nonprofit in the district. Talked with a reporter from IndyStar about my experience earlier this year being retaliated against, threatened, and harassed by a sitting State Senator. Mostly got caught up on emails. Had a DSA Electoral Committee meeting to plan out school board races, Congressional races, and other work.
Friday 9/19 (today): Took my nephew to school (actually did this every day this week). Parrhesia work. Political strategizing. Follow-ups on AES rate case, data center fight, and prep for the full Council meeting Monday.
As a reminder, I send these updates about how I spend my time to you because you pay my salary. I appreciate any and all feedback you have! What am I not doing enough of? What do you want to see more focus on? How can I better serve you?