The Evils of Privatization?

The headline in the print edition of yesterday's Lowell Sun screamed about $1.7 million in wasted spending at a school for special needs students. Only in the sub-headline did the fact that it was a private school appear. The web version of the story makes that information much more prominent. The story reports on a State Auditor's report that criticizes this school for spending funds from the state on Red Sox tickets, elaborate dinners, and other questionable items. Wasn't it just last month that the Sun, in consecutive editorials ranting about all that is wrong with public education, proclaim that privatization was the salvation of educating America's youth? The type of waste reported in this story is the inevitable result of privatization of traditionally public functions such as education. With public services, the voters at least have some say in how their tax dollars are being spent. If the money is being spent unwisely, the voters have no one to blame but themselves. But when government abdicates its responsibilities to Corporate America, you get the same perks and fringe benefits that have transformed professional sports in this country into the exclusive domain of the very rich and of those with the right connections to corporations that spend their shareholders money lavishly on food and entertainment budgets. There's no place for that in government, and especially not in public education.