The Lion's Roar

There's some things money can't buy: Outsourcing undermines our morality

The Newton School Committee has been discussing the possibility of outsourcing the food services program in an effort to reduce the school department’s $6 million deficit. Although the food program lost approximately $900,000 last year, we don’t think privatizing is the right way to recover this money. We say “right” because outsourcing may be effective in decreasing expenses, it may be effective in providing more funds for elective courses and educational materials, but these benefits are not worth the costs of stripping many cafeteria workers of their jobs, leaving them without income in one of the worst economic times since the Great Depression.

Not only would these workers be fending for themselves, but they would also be doing so with a skill-set that doesn’t transfer to most jobs.

Many say, however, that this is a sacrifice we must make in order to decrease Newton’s budget deficit, arguing that paying cafeteria workers less would make up the necessary funds that we have lost. Most full-time cafeteria workers, however, earn less than $20,000 a year while part-time workers earn $10,000, according to the Newton Public School Custodians Association. The association pointed out that in order to spend less on cafeteria workers’ salaries, Newton would have to pay the workers close to minimum wage and offer them no health benefits, something we find incompatible with the values of a public school system.

A public school has a responsibility to teach its students to respect every…

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