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.

Category: Transparency in Schools