CAN ILLINOIS EDUCATION PASS THE 'OPEN BOOK' TEST?

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CAN ILLINOIS EDUCATION PASS THE 'OPEN BOOK' TEST?
By: For The Good Of Illinois | Category: Education Editorial | Published: 2/21/2008
Views: 720 | Comments: 13 |

CAN ILLINOIS EDUCATION PASS THE ‘OPEN BOOK’ TEST?

By: Adam Andrzejewski
February 21, 2008

Starting “An Open Book Revolution In Illinois Government”

In meetings around the state, Illinois citizens are beginning to ask their local school districts to “Open The Books”. The citizens’ request is for the posting of the school district check register on the internet. No change in state law is required, expense is minimal, and implementation time is practically nil. From school districts on the Illinois edge of St. Louis up to the Illinois border with Wisconsin, this “Open Book Revolution In Illinois Government” is resonating across our state.

The Illinois people will lead; the leaders of Illinois will follow.

Because Illinois has local control of school districts, the logical starting point to reform Illinois government begins with education. The vast majority of Illinois school districts most likely run a tight ship. By posting their check registers, the public trust will be openly upgraded with taxpayers. Through the goodwill of posting and providing easy access to spending records, the education establishment will glean much upside public relations. Local taxpayers will be able to follow the money within their school district. With the help of citizens and good local school district boards and administrations, Illinois education has the opportunity to set a shining example of government transparency and easy information access.

By passing the ‘open book test’, education can lead the way to transparency for all of Illinois Government!

Currently, every level of state government lacks transparency and thus, isn’t answerable to Illinois citizens. Over the vast spectrum of Illinois government, waste and abuse of Illinois public funds is far too ingrained, systemic, and has lasted for too many decades. Regular people with common sense believe that Illinois government must be held accountable with public monies.

In particular, the government in Springfield needs our help! The politicians have not shown any semblance of spending reasonability or provided transparency of the public funds. From 2002-2007 Illinois revenue rose by $14 billion. Yet, as of January 1st, 2008, Illinois has $2.7 billion of unpaid bills. Illinois has $107 billion of state debt. Over the past 5 years, the entire $14 billion increase was spent and more… And the “balanced budget” is about to come unglued, as state revenues are running $750 million behind pace due to the slowing Illinois economy. Yet, in a report by the Auditor General (November, 2007), the 83 state agencies cannot even quantify the number of programs within their own purview!

If the people lead, the leaders will follow. We can tell the political elites beholden to the insiders, deal cutters, cronies, and influence peddlers that average does it. We can tell the political elites that what is needed are regular people with common sense. Illinois needs the fresh air of the ordinary and straightforward. The average person can change our state for the better.

ASK YOUR LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT TO POST THEIR CHECK REGISTER ON THE INTERNET.

This isn’t only about an open book test for the public schools. It’s about an open book revolution in all levels of government for accountability of public funds. We can begin to turn Illinois right side up. If the Illinois people will lead, the leaders of Illinois will follow. Let’s get started!

For The Good Of Illinois

TO LEARN MORE CONTACT ADAM ANDRZEJEWSKI: adam@forthegoodofillinois.org

Comments

On 8/2/2008 Adam Andrzejewski said:

Our Illinois School Transparency Honor Roll is on the homepage of our site. Please visit the honor roll and review the quotes from the Superintendents and Trustees that have adopted our measure. These districts are leading the way in Illinois good government.

On 4/20/2008 Adam Andrzejewski said:

I am a private citizen and self-fund the website and all expenses of my organization. But, since you think that transparency is good for a private citizen funding a non-profit... I'm sure you'll agree that transparency is a citical priority for our government!! Glad to have you aboard.

On 4/20/2008 George said:

Where on this site do I find the check log for this non-profit?

On 3/6/2008 Adam Andrzejewski said:

Transparency information on Texas school districts, Miami-Dade, as well as many school districts across America- can be found at http://www.peytonwolcott.com/NationalSchoolDistrictHonorRoll_FlyerForDistrict.html . Peyton Wolcott is the national leader in the education transparency movement.

On 2/25/2008 Adam Andrzejewski said:

I think that you are missing the point. Posting a check register from a far off locale means nothing to you and me, but it means everything if you are a local business competitor with the posted vendor or a taxpayer seeing where the money is going. Posting the register is a concrete, tangible and doable idea. The posting idea is the perfect first step in sunshine and has been called the number one idea to correct education spending by the top education reformers in the country. Conversely, the education establishment likes the idea as well (if they’re doing a good job). Miami Dade- the largest school district in the country just posted- and the superintendent just won Florida Superintendent of the Year. You have other good ideas. But, you’re the “realist”… The ideas you have need to go through our legislature, or are not immediately quantifiable. You seem to be saying that we need to 'educate our elites’ (on corruption and budgeting) or ‘better elites’ with technology (auctions). I take a different view. Total sunshine allows the average citizen coupled with the good public servants in education to work together. Then we take it to the whole Illinois government.

On 2/25/2008 realist said:

An example of how introducing competition and market forces to budgeting - change contract bidding to an online auction format for pre-qualified bidders. You will see expenses drop through the floor. This is what private sector businesses are doing. Wasted time on past check registers yeilds no result.

On 2/25/2008 realist said:

Believe me, I'm for responsibility in spending. My issue is that you are looking at the wrong end of the pig. This money is spent already. Focus efforts on accountability in budget creation - probably a lot of this would be in educating the spenders on how to save, how to bid fairly as well as creating safeguards against corruption. The link you sent does not really help anything. you need a decoder ring to even determine what these expenses are (they are not tied to line items and the recipient of the money is not even described). Not trying to be a pain - just trying to help focus on ways of actually creating change.

On 2/24/2008 Adam Andrzejewski said:

http://cmsdemo.murchison.esc7.net/index.php?page=check-register This is one link of 130 school districts in Texas that post! 67% of all school district expenditures are posted online! All stakeholders benefit through this transparency: education establishment, taxpayers, and students. Illinois school districts are way behind this curve, but will catchup fast!

On 2/24/2008 realist said:

so post 1 url.

On 2/21/2008 Adam Andrzejewski said:

Illinois has the Freedom of Information Act as current law; schools must 'answer to every person who has a question about money' as a matter of law. The real question is access. The Better Government Association did a study of FOIA and found that only 29/100 times was the request forthcoming (from school districts). So, the real question is not school district cost or time- the present concern is only access. The real cost to a school district is when their referendum (for millions $) doesn't pass b'c the taxpayers feel their money isn't well spent. Show the taxpayer that the dollars are proper and a tremendous upside will accrue in public relations. States that have many districts posting are Texas, Kansas, Florida, etc. The url's are many, b'c each school individually posts...

On 2/21/2008 realist said:

What state? Can you post the URL? This does not seem like a realistic control measure (having the schools answer to every person who has a question about any dispersal of money - you would have to hire and pay an entire staff to do just this)

On 2/21/2008 Adam Andrzejewski said:

As of yesterday, the urgency of our request to post school districts check registers on the internet took on greater importance... The Governor has proposed a $300 million dollar increase in education funding. By not being able to track the existing public funds, how do we know if the additional $300 million is neccessary?

On 2/21/2008 Andy Golletz said:

What could they be afraid of? Also, this is aready being done in many other states. Great starting point, keep up the good work Adam!