School Superintendents Against Spending TransparencY

As the debate over public school spending transparency ramps up at the Louisiana State Capitol this Legislative Session, public school superintendents from across the state are working overtime to kill reform efforts that would make it easier for you to find out how they are spending your money. 

It's yet another example of the unnecessary barriers that the entrenched education establishment puts up to keep parents from finding out what's going on in our schools. Here's what you need to know.

HB 462, by Rep. Rick Edmonds (R-Baton Rouge), would require public school boards to post their fiscal information on the State Treasurer's website so the public can easily access it. Under Louisiana's current system, it is nearly impossible for parents to figure out how local districts spend their kids' education dollars.

Not surprisingly, this common-sense legislation is supported by Republicans and Democrats on both sides of the political aisle. HB 462 sailed thru the Louisiana House of Representatives by a vote of 97-1 earlier this month and is now up for consideration in the Senate.

Despite the overwhelming bipartisan support for HB 462, education bureaucrats are opposed to the effort. Mike Faulk, executive director for the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents, recently testified against the school spending transparency bill in committee, saying, "It greatly expands the detailed information," which must be made available to the public online, and it "would cause increasing duties and responsibilities to staff that are already overburdened."

Watch the video here. 

In addition, public school superintendents and school boards have also argued in the past that parents should have to file public records requests and pay for them in order to find out what's going on in their child's public school.

It's not just happening here in Louisiana. It is part of a troubling nationwide trend. In 2021, a group of parents and other concerned residents in Rhode Island filed a public records request with the Rochester Public Schools district seeking documents to learn more about the curriculum that was being taught in their schools. The district responded two months later with a bill for more than $900,000! Last year, a Texas mom wanted to find out how widespread the issue of bullying was in her district after her son was repeatedly assaulted at school. She filed a public records request. Instead of getting back any relevant information, she received a letter from the district's lawyers stating it would cost over $7,000 in public records fees.

That's absurd! Parents should not have to jump thru a bunch of bureaucratic hoops and pay thousands of dollars to find out what their child's public school is teaching or how much they are spending.

It is obvious the education establishment is opposed to transparency because they want to suppress information and make it as difficult as possible to access. That's why we need reforms like HB 462 that increase transparency and make it possible for parents and taxpayers to hold school leaders accountable. 

 With more than 24,000 Louisiana children trapped in low-performing or failing K-12 public schools today, it is clear that far too many of our kids aren't getting what they need to succeed. 

The movement toward improvement starts with knowing where our money goes! Parents can play a critical role by demanding reforms like HB 462 and other measures that require schools to be more transparent. Parents deserve to know the truth about how their kids' education dollars are being spent, and they deserve for that truth to be easily accessible.