The federal government took over responsibility for airport security Sunday. Airline industry workers will be replaced by government employees who will be reportedly higher paid and better trained. The question left after this decision is why not use that money to help the airline industry and the Federal Aviation Industry train existing employees to perform their jobs more effectively?

Some current workers may end up in the government programs, but surely many will lose their jobs as the nine-month transition takes place across the country. The government does not need to step in and check things when non-government workers would be able to do the same jobs just as well if given the proper training.

The government is using Sept. 11 to further involve itself in everyday affairs, and such legislation should have been stopped long ago before taking effect. Instead, people will lose jobs, and passengers will be lulled into a false sense of security that the government is doing a quantifiably better job than previously done.

Such a claim is erroneous. The St. Petersburg Times reports that passengers will most likely not see many changes. “It’s really a change in the reporting structure,” said Frontier Airlines spokeswoman Tracy Kelly. Thus, if the only major difference is who receives reports of problems, why did the government need to implement a new system when it could have just added a few government officials at each airport to supplement recent changes in baggage checks?

The government is overstepping its bounds by taking over airport security checks. Passengers need to understand that things can always slip by, and although the government is checking baggage, nothing is fool proof. Passengers should continue to be vigilant and not rely entirely on the new government workers to make sure their flights are completely safe.