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Guest Commentary January 15, 2002
Airport Screeners Should Have High School Diplomas
The Honorable Chuck Schumer
It hasn't been four months since September 11 and the FAA is already back to business as usual by dropping the high school diploma requirement for screeners.
Syracuse requires its police officers to have high school diplomas. New York requires its Troopers to have them and the FBI, Secret Service, and other federal law enforcement agencies require their agents to have them.
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It flies in the face of logic to require the people responsible for our safety on the ground to have high school diplomas but to let the people responsible for our safety in the sky go without them.
The airline security bill wasn't a job protection act. Just keeping all of the same screeners we have now won't make air travel any safer. What was the point of federalizing airport security if we're just going to rehire the same people whether they're qualified for the job or not?
Screeners have to talk to people, ask good questions, interpret their answers and make difficult judgments. No one should be willing to put their safety in the hands of unqualified screeners. This is just too important to leave to chance.
It was not Congress' intent to merely preserve the status quo when we
passed the airline security legislation.
How can we expect our airports to be secure and how can we expect the public to feel secure when we won't even require the people charged with protecting our airports to meet minimum standards?
Not requiring the highest possible standards and qualifications for airline security workers sends exactly the wrong message.
The best way to get people to fly is to ensure that security is high. Every time someone opts not to fly, it doesn't just hurt the airlines, it hurts our hotels, our restaurants, theaters, taxi drivers, rental car agencies, and hundreds of other businesses that rely on travel and tourism for their survival.
Chuck Schumer is a U.S. Senator (D-New York). The above has been adapted from a news release issued by Sen. Schumer on January 8, 2002. To contact him, Click Here.
The above column has been distributed by PoliticsOL.com.
