More transparency sought in spending by school districts
Bill to require info to be posted on Web sites
By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published February 14, 2009 at 12:05 a.m.
Coloradans would be able to see how their local school districts spend money under a bill approved in the Senate on Friday.
Under SB 57, the state's 178 school districts would be required, in effect, to post their checkbooks on their Web sites, showing what was spent and who received it.
Employee salaries won't be posted by name.
"People are very interested in where their governments are spending their money," said Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, the bill's chief sponsor. "Transparency is very important to the taxpayers of the state of Colorado."
Harvey's bill was approved in a series of unrecorded floor votes. A final, recorded Senate vote could come as early as Monday, after which the bill goes to the House.
Opposition came from Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins, chairman of the Senate Education Committee. He said posting all expenditures might be costly for the districts.
"We're cutting over $100 million from our school districts (because of the recession)," Bacon said. "None of us really knows the kind of expenses the school districts are going to incur in order to comply with the legislation."
Bacon said information on expenditures can be misleading. Many expenditures aren't paid with tax revenue, but from grants or activity accounts, which are derived through student fundraising.
"So erroneous inferences can be made," Bacon said. "Sometimes a little knowledge is more dangerous than all the knowledge."
The Senate education committee last month watered down the bill, voting only to "encourage" districts to post their expenditures. The Friday votes reversed that decision.
A handful of small districts that do not have Web sites are excluded from the bill. Districts must begin posting information by Sept. 1, 2011.
Spending information is already public under the state's Open Records Act, but districts can demand that citizens file a formal request for the information, can delay responses and can charge for documents or computer disks.
Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Cindy Stevenson said the district will comply if the bill passes. "We'll make it work," she said.
Stevenson said the district is already working on a way to post spending information. It will show whether a bill was paid with tax dollars or from other sources, she said.
During the Senate debate, several lawmakers said posting the data won't be costly because it is already available electronically from the bank or credit card company.
Sen. David Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, said districts could turn the project over to high school computer whizzes.
"You let him take care of this thing, and then give him credit for the course," Schultheis said.
Stevenson said Jefferson county won't be taking that route. The project will be handled by accounting and budget professionals, she said.
morsonb@rockymountainnews.com or 303-954-5209
Post your comment
Registration is required. Click here to create your free user account, or login below.
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.
Featured
-
Obama in Denver
Click here to send us your photos and video from Obama's stop in Denver on Tuesday.
-
Know a good kid?
We're looking for high school students who stand out through good deeds or hard work.
-
Rooted in the West
Rocky photographer Matt McClain talks about his photos of archetypal western jobs.
-
2009 Summer Camp Guide
Find the best camp to send your kids to this summer.
-
Legislature Blog
The Rocky's Lynn Bartels and Ed Sealover provide live updates from the Capitol.
-
The Rocky is for Sale
The latest on the future of Colorado's oldest newspaper.
-
Mount Rockmore
Help us decide which former Rockies should be carved on Mount Rockmore.
-
Rockies Spring Training
Complete coverage of the Rockies' spring training in Arizona
-
Multimedia
The news comes alive in our videos and slide shows. Catch up on what's happening today.
February 14, 2009
9:32 p.m.
Suggest removal
BetterEducated writes:
Let's assume the cost of booting up the website is fully 50% of the working budget of a school district.
So what?!
Is protecting that other 50% not worth the expense?
It is, and here's why: That money belongs to the public 100% and if you cannot demonstrate where it's going, you should receive zero percent of it.
In granting "local control over instruction" to school districts, voters were intending to keep state officials from directly spending their funds from afar -- NOT to restrict them from acting on behalf of the public by imposing reasonable regulations on these local entities.
A traditionally hands-off attitude at the legislature is part of Colorado's problem and leaves the state in a posture that is not only vastly at variance with the way most other states have resolved the same issue -- but unprotected as well.
Even if it turns out that 100% of the school districts are managing 100% of their resources most productively 100% of the time, for the public to learn that will not do it any harm and may well make it easier for the voters to open their future wallets for district causes and needs.