Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Transparency for Teacher Contracts

Smart political minorities not only point out where the majority is wrong--as this liberal monopoly often is--they also propose good policies of their own.

Senator Janet Greenip (R -33) has done so. Yesterday she introduced the Public School Collective Bargaining Sunshine Act (SB 230). SB 230 would require county boards of education to make their collective bargaining contracts publicly available within 10 days of the agreement.

Currently citizens wishing to review those contracts must file a FOIA request to obtain them. As I can personally attest, FOIA requests are not an easy process, especially when public officials have something to hide.

Teacher unions, whose members incessantly claim to be the saviors of public school students, should have no qualms about public scrutiny of their contracts. After all they are public employees.

Transparency in government is a notion that is paid a lot of lip service, but rarely any action. This bill would offer taxpayers a clearer view an often opaque process.

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