During Sunday night’s episode of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight,” host John Oliver took on special districts, which he described as corrupt, too easy to create, and too challenging to destroy.
Oliver noted that special districts — mostly commonly fire, water and school districts — account for $100 billion in spending in the United States each year. He said that they lack accountability, noting that in a fire district in Rhode Island, the district chief was caught drinking on the job and smoking marijuana.
Oliver said that special districts “can be created seemingly out of thin air,” pointing to a district created when just two voters who moved to the area temporarily cast votes.
And of course, Oliver said, “Once a special district is created, you can be pretty sure no one is going to be watching what you do.”
Finally, Oliver said that the districts are often difficult to dissolve.
“There’s no way to break them up. They’re like styrofoam packing peanuts or the enduring friendship of Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake. They’ll be with us until the end of time,” he said.
At the end of the segment, Oliver brought in school children to help explain special districts. The video was entered as part of a contest in California.
Watch via HBO:
Is there no part of American life untouched by money corruption, no matter who gets abused?
School districts are one of the great inventions of the USA, seriously. Otherwise the fate of the schools gets caught up in the fate of the county. Public policy people know this.
What is really messed up in this country is the media. Why should it take a comedian to highlight deep and corrosive problems in our country? What is the supposed news media doing?