Higher-education leaders stress the importance of academic freedom in building world-class universities in Georgia. Translation: Politicians need to keep their noses out of campus affairs.

That's usually sound policy, since academics suffer when subjugated to the agendas or whims of legislatures. However, in the public arena, academic freedom has to be tethered to fiscal responsibility, since taxpayers are underwriting those campuses. In the last few months, the public's faith in the fiscal practices of academia has been shaken.

First, there were the stunning revelations of blatant abuses of state-issued purchasing cards, including the case of a Georgia Tech administrator who charged $316,000 buying 3,800 personal items, including a Jet Ski and a margarita machine. Now comes the developing story of the husband-wife superstars at Tech who are alleged to have collected paychecks and expense money from Tech while accepting positions and working at the University of Minnesota.

Apparently, Francois Sainfort, formerly an associate engineering dean, and Julie Jacko, professor in the school of biomedical engineering, are the ivory tower equivalent of Brangelina. Georgia Tech says the high-powered, brilliant couple billed duplicate charges to Tech and Minnesota and paid a family member more than $80,000 in consulting fees with Tech money. The couple denies the allegations, which are under investigation by the state attorney general's office.

With all these smart people making foolish choices, the Legislature ought to consider looking over the shoulder of the Board of Regents a little more often.

— Maureen Downey, for the editorial board (mdowney@ajc.com)