We Need Transparency in our Schools

Taxpayers should know where the government is spending their money.

Transparency is a simple concept that, if enacted in Louisiana’s government spending, will bring accountability and efficiency to the use of taxpayer dollars. Although many areas of the state government have begun to publish how it spends taxpayer dollars, Louisiana’s school districts are still not required to publish their budgets.

Louisiana’s school districts consistently land at the bottom of all the national rankings even though we outspend most of our neighbors on our cost per student. Even though our cost per student is above all of our southern neighbors, we are at the bottom of the list, so it’s time for accountability and transparency in our school districts to find out where our tax dollars are being spent. Accountability and transparency in education is crucial to stopping our school districts from continuing to fail the next generation of Louisianans.

There is already a model in place here in Louisiana for the school district financial transparency checkbooks. Lafayette Parish School Board has already put in place an online checkbook that let’s anyone view where their tax dollars are being spent. Lafayette’s model of financial transparency is a great step towards better schools for our kids.

Government transparency is a simple but effective idea that makes the governments more accountable to the people they serve. We must bring transparency to our schools, so we can better educate and set up our children for bright futures in the great state of Louisiana.