I have been tracking the progress of the North Dakota Policy Council (NDPC) and their battle to bring transparency to government in North Dakota. One of the highlights of their transparency program has been the development of a website called Sunshine on Schools which is designed to track the spending and budgets of every school district in North Dakota.
Over the past few months I have posted extensively on their website and its progress. If you want to read these posts just visit Sunshine on Schools Garners More Support; Elected Official Praises SOS Transparency Website; and Spotlight on Sunshine … North Dakota.
Well now the main stream media has begun to pay attention to the transparency revolution being led by the NDPC. This past weekend the Grand Forks Herald, North Dakota’s 3rd largest newspaper did a great story about the Sunshine on Schools website. I encourage you to read the story (New Web site lists district information for all N.D. school districts) and see the impact that just a few people have been making on the issue of transparency.
I got a chuckle from the quote by North Dakota State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the state’s highest education official, where he admits using the Sunshine on Schools website to look up information just that morning.
I am quoting from the Sunshine on Schools website, The data on this website is directly from the North Dakota Department of Instruction. I must ask myself the following question - Why did the Superintendent of Public Instruction have to go to Sunshine on Schools website to get information that should be available on his department’s website?
