This past week in Colorado, Senate Bill 57, also called the Public School Financial Transparency Act, which simply require public school districts to put their spending online, died in committee. How could any responsible public official forbid parents from seeing how their tax-dollars are spent educating their children?
The answer to that question is simple: Taxpayer-funded lobbying associations and National Education Association.
How many parents are aware that school districts use taxpayer money for political lobbying purposes? Does the NEA want mom and dad to have easy access to teacher's salaries, health care costs, pension payouts as well as performance reviews? The answers respectively are none and no.
If parents understood the financial realities of how their money is spent, the education system would actually be accountable to children, not unions and lobbyists. Politicians would fear the wrath of voters more than the NEA.
The same can be said for our entire political system... [snip]
Nebraska state treasurer Shane Osborn recently addressed transparency in the Wall Street Journal. He rightfully bragged about the economic situation in his state compared to the rest of the country.
"Our state's unemployment consistently hovers in the 4%-5% range (the latest federal figures peg it at 4.5%, while the national average is 8.1%). The national foreclosure rate is one in every 500 homes; in Nebraska it is one in 25,500. The state currently has a record surplus. We ended the year with about $550 million in our rainy-day fund, and project a modest 1.2% growth in tax revenue this year."
Osborn attributed Nebraska's success to "an inquiring public that demands to know how tax dollars are spent." He credits the public's desire for transparency as his "inspiration" for creating a website that "discloses every aspect of state government spending". [snip]
In July 2008, the Sam Adams Alliance created the government transparency website Sunshine Review. The goal of this open-wiki source is to empower everyday citizens to serve as government watchdogs, giving them the tools to bring open and honest government to the state and local level.[snip]
The success of Sunshine Review as well as the economic climate in Nebraska is proof that an involved and knowledgeable citizenry can do what the mainstream media has failed to accomplish-make open and honest government a reality.
[I.e., it's in our interest to force our 'representative' governments at all levels to operate in this fashion. Is yours?
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"Enact 'Sunshine Review' policies in government."
Whitehouse: mailto:president@whitehouse.gov
Senate-Reid: http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
House-Pelosi: http://speaker.house.gov/contact/
YOUR Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
YOUR Congressman: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
CA Governor: http://gov.ca.gov/interact mailto:governor@governor.ca.gov
YOUR CA Legislators (Sen+Assy): http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html
or: Speed Message them with your personal distribution list...
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