In an unusual display of camaraderie, free-market activists calling for the separation of school and state have joined forces with parents seeking to raise the quality of their children’s public school education and teachers struggling with administrative overgrowth and misuse of funds, in the common goal of creating transparency in school spending.
Friends of DeKalb Schools is a non-partisan committee organized by the Libertarian Party of DeKalb to encourage the Board of Education to bring transparency to the local public school system. The DeKalb County School System has over 14,000 employees and an annual budget of over $1.2 Billion (down from a high of $1.7 Billion).
The Friends of DeKalb Schools committee has discovered that one good way to obtain the desired transparency is to gently persuade the elected members of the Board of Education (BOE) to follow the lead of 800+ schools in 36 states across the country – including all public school systems in our neighboring states of Alabama and South Carolina – and take action to post the school system’s check register online.
The committee feels this issue is the perfect “litmus test” for the BOE candidates in the upcoming general election. We asked all the candidates to respond to the simple question, "What are your feelings regarding posting the school system's check register online?" The candidates responses ranged from Nancy Jester’s answer of “YES!” and blogging about her commitment to make this happen, to incumbent Sarah Copelin-Woods’ total non-response after two phone messages and an e-mail from one of her constituents on the committee. Below are the results of our survey.
Friends of DeKalb Schools
David Montané, Committee Chair
Mobile phone: 404-276-8701
E-address: me@davidmontane.com
Click the chart for a larger, printable view.
