After learning how important the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) services are to the DC, Maryland and Virginia area, Charles Stepanek, MPH ’18, decided to dedicate his capstone project to exploring a recent WMATA privatization proposal.
The proposal, put forth by the WMATA general manager and U.S. House Republicans, would cut many workers’ positions and align benefits to those of the private sector. According to Stepanek, this initiative fits a pattern of WMATA’s growing dependence on private contract labor as well as the DC government’s privatizing of public goods, such as education and emergency medical services. “Privatization has a history of reducing income equality and disproportionately harming black Americans,” Stepanek wrote in his captsone paper.
Stepanek’s research focused on the history of racial inequality in public employment. He also looked at recent congressional legislation and was struck by how important public employment is to ensuring greater racial equality when it comes to jobs.
Stepank, who concentrated in Health Policy, says he relied heavily on his epidemiology, statistics and human resources classes to complete his project, and he praised his education for providing him with real world exposure in the classroom.
Stepanek also appreciated learning how to write concisely, using differential information from newspaper and academic publications. He said he’s now using these skills in his current job at the Veterans Health Administration where he works on the agency’s budget.
As proud as Stepanek is of his capstone project, he knows it is just one facet of his comprehensive experience at the Milken Institute School of Public Health.