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- Texas leads the way in public education financial transparency
Texas leads the way in public education financial transparency
- By Peyton Wolcott - EdNews
- Published 01/31/2007
- K-12
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Texas leads the way in public education financial transparency
TEA's check register now online!
By Peyton Wolcott EdNews.org
You have no idea how much pleasure it gives me as a native Texan to be able to write this headline.
After toiling in the grassroots education reform vineyards as a volunteer for many years, suddenly late last September a light bulb went off and I realized that many of our public records issues could be addressed by a very simple remedy: School districts could post their check registers online.
With photographs: http://www.peytonwolcott.com/TEA_CheckRegister.html
You have no idea how much pleasure it gives me as a native Texan to be able to write this headline.
After toiling in the grassroots education reform vineyards as a volunteer for many years, suddenly late last September a light bulb went off and I realized that many of our public records issues could be addressed by a very simple remedy: School districts could post their check registers online.
Thus of a simple remedy was born a very simple project, The National School District Honor Roll, honoring those districts posting their check registers online.
Increased transparency: clearly an idea whose time has come
Responding to questions earlier today regarding the Texas Education Agency's decision to post its check register online this week (link below right in red box) in conjunction with the governor's press release today (below right, grey box) deputy TEA commissioner Robert Scott pointed out that increased transparency was the governor's initiative. "It's something he feels very strongly about, Scott said. "We at TEA wholeheartedly agree."What it looks like
TEA's check register as posted online is a jumble of the mundane and the huge, all of the checks the agency's written over the past four months.
There's what could be a mileage reimbursement check to TEA general counsel David Anderson back in November for an even $43.00 posted not too far from the $223,543,476.43 paid to Dallas ISD .
All for apparent want of a tractor
Speaking of Dallas, we note almost $2.2 million since September 13 to Como-Picton CISD, about 45 minutes to the east, not too far from professional Texas Association of School Boards paid lobbyist Bill Ratliff's hometown of Mt. Pleasant. TEA's most recent check was mailed to CPCISD, presumably addressed to the district's superintendent, on January 26, the same day East Texas Radio announced "Hopkins County Investigator Lewis Tatum and Texas Ranger Philip Kemp are examining the financial and bank records of the Como-Pickton ISD today as the investigation into the activities of suspended superintendent Bryan Neal continues. Investigator Tatum says more charges are possible in the case, in addition to the two already filed." Also, "prosecutors say Neal bought a tractor and a four-wheeler under the school's name at a combined cost of about $30,000 and was paying it off with a payroll deduction. He’s also accused of forging someone else’s name on a check made out to him."From California: 'Texas is way ahead of the game'
Tim Crews, publisher of the award-winning Sacramento Valley Mirror, and officer of Calaware, an open government advocacy group, commented last night from California, "You can't really understand how something as complicated as education works until you can see where the actual dollars go. As somebody who's fought for transparency in public schools over the past forty years, this is one of the best pieces of good news I've run into. Texas is way ahead of the game. This is good faith with the voters and the taxpayers, a good deal all around."
Elsewhere across the nation
Reactions have ranged from shock to high-fives (in my kitchen with my husband) to shouts to the philosophic.
"I'd sure like to see this in Iowa," said Dick Fredericks, spokesman forIowalive, a growing network of volunteer professionals working to improve all things Iowa, including their public schools. "Texas is first--why can't Iowa be second?"
Rhonda Thurman in Chattanooga, who has just this week successfully persuaded supe Jim Scales, formerly of Dallas ISD, to release the names of employees due to receive $13 million from HCDOE for accrued sick and vacation pay, said, "It would be marvelous if we would be that transparent here; it would save a lot of distrust and make this more open to the public. Some people seem to think public education funds are their own private company and they can do what they want. The taxpayers have a right to know."By email from Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, Coast Guard Captain Jim Olsen said, "I look forward to the day when Washington State taxpayers and parents will have the leadership the Texas Education Agency has demonstrated by publishing their financial records on the Internet.
Our local Bainbridge Island School District #303 still spends taxpayer funds and bonds and levies without any transparency."
From Nebraska, education writer Susan Darst Williams took a philosophic view: “The quickest way to expose waste, fraud, embezzlement, bid-rigging and corruption is to get a lot more accounting transparency from our districts. Then, if abuse isn’t there, they’ve done their job–they’ve educated the public on how they’re spending our money, and we can all live happily ever after.” Susan's website is www.GoBigEd.com.
From Texas, whoops and hollers
Bremond ISD trustee Pat Yezak, who together with her friend Nancy Gadbois successfully helped bring James Kenneth Johnson, their then-superintendent, to justice, responded yesterday to TEA's announcement, "I think this is such a positive step! It's awesome! TEA's leading the way!" El Paso ISD dad Gary Gonzalez (photo above right), due to meet with superintendent Lorenzo Garcia this morning at 8:00 a.m.--with putting the district's check register online first on the agenda--said last night, "I'm ecstatic to learn that the Texas Education Agency has made this move. It's a victory not only for public disclosure and open government but also for the schoolchildren of Texas. I hope that El Paso ISD and all other school districts pay heed to the actions of TEA and follow suit."
Teresa Blackwell, president of ACCESS-Cleburne ISD, a parent/ taxpayer group working to improve their local public schools, had this thought: "If the lead agency is posting their check registers online, it should set a precedent for every school district in Texas. This will certainly make it easier for our district to post its check register online." www.accesscleburneisd.com
Jim and Pat Donahy, who were instrumental in bringing sunshine to Llano ISD--their former superintendent, Jack Patton, became Texas' first Public Information Act conviction--said late last night, "Fantastic news! It's the first step in the right direction! Hopefully Llano ISD will follow soon in TEA's footsteps by doing the same thing with all of their check registers."
Spring Branch ISD board vice president Mike Falick, who persuaded fellow board members last fall that the district's check registers be posted online, commented, "It is good to see the Texas Education Agency following Spring Branch’s lead in increasing transparency for Texas taxpayers. Hopefully, soon all governmental agencies will do so as well."
Mary McGarr said, "As a former Katy ISD school board member, it's gratifying for me to hear that Texas Education Agency officials raised the bar of openness by putting the Agency's check registers on line--a move that should encourage school districts statewide to join them."
Check registers online snowballing
There's clearly a heightened interest in public school spending and transparency--especially anything available online. People get technology, use it daily in multiple aspects of their lives, and don't understand why their tax dollars which are paying for so much costly and advanced technology in their schools can't produce easily accessible online viewing of all school records including financials.
Austin American-Statesman editor Rich Oppel came up with a solution last year: "Put all government records up on the Internet, except for those that are specifically confidential by law."
As a counter there will always be the school district apologists, the folks who want you to trust, trust, TRUST your board and superintendent--after all, you elected them--and pul-LEEZ let them do their job without having to stop and look up receipts for every Tom, Dick and Harry who ask.
The telling incident in this tale: a blog posting just last week in Houston regarding Mary McGarr's suburban school district, Katy ISD.
Houston Chronicle reporter Helen Eriksen first posted an entry about the possibility of Katy ISD's posting its check register online last Thursday and the comments have ranged from school district loyalists who confuse trust with blind loyalty to angry taxpayers wanting accountability and they want it NOW.
While Helen's post today on the naming of a new school has netted one comment, and her post last Friday about a local resident who is staging Friday-night pig races to protest the construction of a new mosque next door has attracted 22 comments, her blog entry a day earlier asking whether Katy ISD should post its check registers online still continues to attract comments, 39 so far, and at a steady pace.
This snowball has legs.
Copyright 2007
By Peyton Wolcott EdNews.org
You have no idea how much pleasure it gives me as a native Texan to be able to write this headline.
After toiling in the grassroots education reform vineyards as a volunteer for many years, suddenly late last September a light bulb went off and I realized that many of our public records issues could be addressed by a very simple remedy: School districts could post their check registers online.
With photographs: http://www.peytonwolcott.com/TEA_CheckRegister.html
You have no idea how much pleasure it gives me as a native Texan to be able to write this headline.
After toiling in the grassroots education reform vineyards as a volunteer for many years, suddenly late last September a light bulb went off and I realized that many of our public records issues could be addressed by a very simple remedy: School districts could post their check registers online.
Thus of a simple remedy was born a very simple project, The National School District Honor Roll, honoring those districts posting their check registers online.
Increased transparency: clearly an idea whose time has come
Responding to questions earlier today regarding the Texas Education Agency's decision to post its check register online this week (link below right in red box) in conjunction with the governor's press release today (below right, grey box) deputy TEA commissioner Robert Scott pointed out that increased transparency was the governor's initiative. "It's something he feels very strongly about, Scott said. "We at TEA wholeheartedly agree."What it looks like
TEA's check register as posted online is a jumble of the mundane and the huge, all of the checks the agency's written over the past four months.
There's what could be a mileage reimbursement check to TEA general counsel David Anderson back in November for an even $43.00 posted not too far from the $223,543,476.43 paid to Dallas ISD .
All for apparent want of a tractor
Speaking of Dallas, we note almost $2.2 million since September 13 to Como-Picton CISD, about 45 minutes to the east, not too far from professional Texas Association of School Boards paid lobbyist Bill Ratliff's hometown of Mt. Pleasant. TEA's most recent check was mailed to CPCISD, presumably addressed to the district's superintendent, on January 26, the same day East Texas Radio announced "Hopkins County Investigator Lewis Tatum and Texas Ranger Philip Kemp are examining the financial and bank records of the Como-Pickton ISD today as the investigation into the activities of suspended superintendent Bryan Neal continues. Investigator Tatum says more charges are possible in the case, in addition to the two already filed." Also, "prosecutors say Neal bought a tractor and a four-wheeler under the school's name at a combined cost of about $30,000 and was paying it off with a payroll deduction. He’s also accused of forging someone else’s name on a check made out to him."From California: 'Texas is way ahead of the game'
Tim Crews, publisher of the award-winning Sacramento Valley Mirror, and officer of Calaware, an open government advocacy group, commented last night from California, "You can't really understand how something as complicated as education works until you can see where the actual dollars go. As somebody who's fought for transparency in public schools over the past forty years, this is one of the best pieces of good news I've run into. Texas is way ahead of the game. This is good faith with the voters and the taxpayers, a good deal all around."
Elsewhere across the nation
Reactions have ranged from shock to high-fives (in my kitchen with my husband) to shouts to the philosophic.
"I'd sure like to see this in Iowa," said Dick Fredericks, spokesman forIowalive, a growing network of volunteer professionals working to improve all things Iowa, including their public schools. "Texas is first--why can't Iowa be second?"
Rhonda Thurman in Chattanooga, who has just this week successfully persuaded supe Jim Scales, formerly of Dallas ISD, to release the names of employees due to receive $13 million from HCDOE for accrued sick and vacation pay, said, "It would be marvelous if we would be that transparent here; it would save a lot of distrust and make this more open to the public. Some people seem to think public education funds are their own private company and they can do what they want. The taxpayers have a right to know."By email from Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, Coast Guard Captain Jim Olsen said, "I look forward to the day when Washington State taxpayers and parents will have the leadership the Texas Education Agency has demonstrated by publishing their financial records on the Internet.
From Nebraska, education writer Susan Darst Williams took a philosophic view: “The quickest way to expose waste, fraud, embezzlement, bid-rigging and corruption is to get a lot more accounting transparency from our districts. Then, if abuse isn’t there, they’ve done their job–they’ve educated the public on how they’re spending our money, and we can all live happily ever after.” Susan's website is www.GoBigEd.com.
From Texas, whoops and hollers
Bremond ISD trustee Pat Yezak, who together with her friend Nancy Gadbois successfully helped bring James Kenneth Johnson, their then-superintendent, to justice, responded yesterday to TEA's announcement, "I think this is such a positive step! It's awesome! TEA's leading the way!" El Paso ISD dad Gary Gonzalez (photo above right), due to meet with superintendent Lorenzo Garcia this morning at 8:00 a.m.--with putting the district's check register online first on the agenda--said last night, "I'm ecstatic to learn that the Texas Education Agency has made this move. It's a victory not only for public disclosure and open government but also for the schoolchildren of Texas. I hope that El Paso ISD and all other school districts pay heed to the actions of TEA and follow suit."
Teresa Blackwell, president of ACCESS-Cleburne ISD, a parent/ taxpayer group working to improve their local public schools, had this thought: "If the lead agency is posting their check registers online, it should set a precedent for every school district in Texas. This will certainly make it easier for our district to post its check register online." www.accesscleburneisd.com
Jim and Pat Donahy, who were instrumental in bringing sunshine to Llano ISD--their former superintendent, Jack Patton, became Texas' first Public Information Act conviction--said late last night, "Fantastic news! It's the first step in the right direction! Hopefully Llano ISD will follow soon in TEA's footsteps by doing the same thing with all of their check registers."
Spring Branch ISD board vice president Mike Falick, who persuaded fellow board members last fall that the district's check registers be posted online, commented, "It is good to see the Texas Education Agency following Spring Branch’s lead in increasing transparency for Texas taxpayers. Hopefully, soon all governmental agencies will do so as well."
Mary McGarr said, "As a former Katy ISD school board member, it's gratifying for me to hear that Texas Education Agency officials raised the bar of openness by putting the Agency's check registers on line--a move that should encourage school districts statewide to join them."
Check registers online snowballing
There's clearly a heightened interest in public school spending and transparency--especially anything available online. People get technology, use it daily in multiple aspects of their lives, and don't understand why their tax dollars which are paying for so much costly and advanced technology in their schools can't produce easily accessible online viewing of all school records including financials.
Austin American-Statesman editor Rich Oppel came up with a solution last year: "Put all government records up on the Internet, except for those that are specifically confidential by law."
As a counter there will always be the school district apologists, the folks who want you to trust, trust, TRUST your board and superintendent--after all, you elected them--and pul-LEEZ let them do their job without having to stop and look up receipts for every Tom, Dick and Harry who ask.
The telling incident in this tale: a blog posting just last week in Houston regarding Mary McGarr's suburban school district, Katy ISD.
Houston Chronicle reporter Helen Eriksen first posted an entry about the possibility of Katy ISD's posting its check register online last Thursday and the comments have ranged from school district loyalists who confuse trust with blind loyalty to angry taxpayers wanting accountability and they want it NOW.
While Helen's post today on the naming of a new school has netted one comment, and her post last Friday about a local resident who is staging Friday-night pig races to protest the construction of a new mosque next door has attracted 22 comments, her blog entry a day earlier asking whether Katy ISD should post its check registers online still continues to attract comments, 39 so far, and at a steady pace.
This snowball has legs.
Copyright 2007
