OXFORD — “Privatization” had great cache with conservatives and not-so-conservatives in the 1990s.

Folks in government were convinced anything they could do, folks in the private sector could do better. That’s kind of strange when you think about it.

Lots of functions of public staffs were turned over to private businesses during this period. For example, there are abundant private prisons in Mississippi. Even local jails still operated by public employees contract out meal service, medical care and such.

Droves of cities and counties also got out of the garbage collection and disposal business and turned everything over to private enterprise. Cities turned over youth league sports management to private groups.

There was talk of privatizing collection of past-due child support payments. Several attorneys general have hired private lawyers for government work. Even the short-lived experiment with traffic cameras that auto-generated citations for autos running red lights was, in essence, turning law enforcement over to private enterprise. The companies that provided the cameras would use official stationery for their “pay your fine” notices and split their take with public treasuries.

The common denominator in these moves toward privatization was that performing what had been a government task had become too complicated, too cumbersome or both. This was often due to legislation, regulations and/or court rulings.

That’s also kind of strange when you think about it.

With all the discussion about charter schools so far this legislative season, it should have occurred to all of us by now that what we’re really talking about is privatizing public education.

The end game here is to take the money that had been going to public school operations, including teacher salaries, and turn it over to free enterprise.

The end game is for the state, having failed, to drop out.

Gov. Phil Bryant doesn’t see it this way. He is absolutely eloquent when he talks about charter schools. He goes so far as to question how anyone could be so crass as to deny young people trapped in low-performing school districts (which would be the only districts where charters could be sought) an opportunity to have better instruction, a more challenging school experience.

He could be absolutely right. That’s because the term “charter schools” encompasses so much. The range starts with pure, for-profit operations that, as with garbage collectors, seek mostly to reward investors. The range ends with pure, for-the-kids schools where altruistic, motivated faculty work tirelessly to help students.

And there’s a vast in between, including the scenario that this whole discussion is really about funneling public money to mostly white private schools and, in essence, adding the state’s stamp of approval to segregation that is as prevalent in 2012 in some areas as it was in 1950.

Bryant and other proponents of charter schools want us to take it as a matter of faith that charters will only be issued to groups that will improve outcomes for all students who enroll, that everything will be closely monitored and on and on.

Skeptics — even those who agree that public education could use a trip to the principal’s office and a stern talking-to or worse — aren’t so sure. They have enough sense to know that “quality” is a hard thing to legislate, to guarantee in any law, no matter how detailed.

Bryant says he will call a special session if necessary and if he feels he can get a charter school law passed this session.

Here’s a different idea: Why not pass legislation to give public schools all the powers and attributes trotted out every time “privatization” is pondered. The power of administrators to make their own decisions. The power to hire and fire for any nondiscriminatory reason and to set variable rates of compensation based on performance.

And if charter schools will have the power to create courses and assign grades as they see fit, to set standards of conduct and to expel students who decline to get with the program, why not skip all the fuss and just give public school administrators that power?

When local schools were local — even when they were segregated — they were better than they have become since the state and federal government started micromanaging them. Government has thoroughly complicated public education, made it so complicated that now government says it can’t do the job.

Just like garbage collection.

Viewed this way, charter schools — privatization — amounts to throwing in the towel. Some will claim otherwise, but it will not be a proud moment for government if charter schools come to Mississippi.

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Charlie Mitchell is a Mississippi journalist. Write to him at Box 1, University, MS 38677, or e-mail cmitchell43@yahoo.com.