Just a few days ago the Denver Post published a great investigative piece on the large amount of wasteful spending our largest three school districts (Denver, Douglas, Jefferson) indulge in year after year. Normally we would shrug at school districts spending thousands of dollars on flip-flops and Starbucks, but these days are anything but normal. With each school district facing budgets cuts in the tens of millions per year, it’s becoming more difficult to justify those taxpayer paid trips to Vegas and that $90,000 tab from Udi’s Food. (What happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas when you’re spending other people’s money….)

But if you’ve been following the Independence Institute at all in the last couple years, this is old news to you.

Friend of the Institute Natalie Menten has been dredging up credit card receipts and the embarrassing spending habits from school districts and other local governments for the past few years. If transparency is your thing, Natalie’s website will put you in a coma with its information. Colorado Transparency Project Director Amy Oliver’s blog called Colorado Spending Transparency (COST) will also whet your transparency appetite. Those two women have been at the forefront of spending transparency and the folks at the Denver Post owe a lot for their hard work. (You’ll notice Natalie is quoted often in their article).

Just today, the Denver Post wrote an editorial touting school district transparency and using new web technology to get the information out to taxpayers. I am happy they are serious about this issue, as having the influence of the Denver Post now strongly in the corner of taxpayers is a great boon. I hope they continue urging sunlight on how schools and local districts spend our money. Because let’s not forget, the money they are spending is OUR money. It’s ethically and morally required that we see how it is being spent.

If you can’t get enough of the transparency issue, look no further than your favorite free market think tank. Recently, education policy analyst Ben DeGrow went on a transparency rampage as evidenced by his Issue Backgrounder, “What Should School District Financial Transparency Look Like?,” his appearance on my show Independent Thinking – “Can the State be as Transparent as Jeffco?,” and this iVoices.org podcast with Lorie Gillis on Jeffco schools’ transparency leadership. In case you hadn’t seen, Jeffco is the shining example of what transparency looks like. Just take a look at this.

I guess what I’m saying is… if you don’t believe transparency is as sexy an issue as say health care or education, you’re wrong. And here’s why.