I recently posted about Adam Andrzejewski’s organization, For The Good of Illinois, and its quest to open up government entities to taxpayer scrutiny. After my post went live, Andrzejewski had his first mega-victory in working with board member and budding transparency icon David Carlin to open up College of Dupage‘s books. (Coincidence? I think not.) COD’s annual budget is $140 mil, so knowing the vendors and reasons for expenditures will be a great step in holding the board officials to a gold standards of ethics.

The good folks at For The Good of Illinois also picked up on a key reason for schools to go transparent- Cost Savings. They encourage businesses to take part in this blurb from their presser:

DuPage County businesses- Take advantage of this service.
The College of DuPage spends approximately $40 million annually in vendor expenses. If you are a local commercial printer and can deliver quality and competitive pricing, take note. If you are a local commercial landscaper, insurance company, hotel, advertising agency, law firm, copier company, paving contractor, heating/air contractor, fire equipment, travel agency or architectural firm, COD paid millions of dollars to vendors in these industries in May, 2008.

DuPage County companies have a ripe opportunity to look over what needs the school has and compete with the school’s current providers. If DuPage companies can offer a better service and deal, they could take part in millions of new revenue from COD. In this way, both your company and the school could profit by exercising civic duty and civic responsibility.

Congratulations to Adam, David, and COD Board Chairman Michael McKinnon on your victory for taxpayers in DuPage County and all of Illinois.

(Note to Adam: If you can get another school the size of COD online, I’ll consider us even.)

Illinois Review and the Illinois Policy Institute have stories up also- go check them out.

Transparency has a strong advocate in Adam Andrzejewski, the Executive Director of For The Good of Illinois, an organization dedicated to transparency on all 7200+ levels of Illinois government. Andrzejewski is currently working to persuade school districts to place their check registers online so parents (and all taxpayers) know where their money is going, and how much of it directly benefits students.

From a recent editorial:

Our schools are literally in our backyards. Having ‘local control’, we fund our public schools with roughly 70% of our property tax monies. Illinois spends $20 billion on public education which amounts to $10,000 per student. We are not receiving a good return on our investment. In the last four years, Illinois students are testing 20% lower on 8th grade reading scores. That’s a steep and fast drop.

How do we know if the $20 billion of Illinois education funding is well spent?

The only way to answer that question is to ‘Open The Books’ of the local school districts! Each school district should post their check register on the school website. The proposal’s simplicity is its strength. There is virtually no cost. The check number, vendor name and amount are already a part of the monthly board packet. Information is already the ‘public’s right to know’ through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Check register posting harnesses current technology with existing law to create a convenient path of community access.

For The Good of Illinois is starting to gain some attention from the press. The Kankakee Daily Journal editorialized on transparency on 5/5/08 and The Pioneer Press published a letter to the editor on 5/15/08.

Three school districts are already posting check registers online: Huntley School District #158, Carpentersville Community District #300, and Oak Park Elementary #97.

3 down, 876 to go. Good Luck, Adam, and thanks for your service to Taxpayers and Parents everywhere.