Ethics training in Illinois is a joke. It is like giving cough medicine to an emphysema patient. In a state known for political corruption, taking a simple test is intended to curb the behavior of years of indoctrinated misbehaving.

As state employees at the Northern Star, we were required to complete an online ethics training course. This wasted many hours of our time and perceivably did the same for many other operations at NIU.

But not so fast! If we completed the packet in less than 10 minutes, the state demands an added step in the form of an ethics packet.

If you get to presumably read your ethics packet and sign the form, you become magically ethical in our land of political sin.

It’s difficult to eliminate legislation that does not provide positive or negative response. Just because no member of our editorial board has ever met anyone who has had a positive experience with this test doesn’t mean the test doesn’t have value.

Informing new state employees of the rules of impropriety is important, but shouldn’t that be done immediately after hiring rather than at a set annual time?

If all the time and money spent on busywork went toward investigating actual impropriety, then ethical behavior might result after years of sifting through Illinois’ culture of corruption.

We need to take down the leaders at the top of the state government rather than attack those at the bottom of the bureaucracy.

Unethical behavior will continue regardless of what paperwork any given employee is forced to complete.

Many state employees take this test every year out of formality. Can we stop wasting their time and taxpayers’ money?