Education Matters US

I am honored this week with the pleasure and responsibility of hosting the Carnival of Open Records

The Freedom of Information Act should really be named the Freedom From Information Act. If you don’t believe me read the stories below of journalist, lawyers, and regular citizens who attempt to access open records.

• Andrew Spencer’s gives his opinion based on experience of how schools and other government bodies use the FOI regulations to classify and deny access to certain records.
• The Northern Valley Beacon shares the case of the South Dakota Supreme Court ruling against open government records
• In North Carolina, Talk Politics discovers it is extremely difficult and time consuming to access the financial disclosure filings of government officials and wonders, why are these records not online?
• The Sunshine in Government Initiative has started the FOIA Files, a searchable database of stories broken because of FOI requests. Of course they also have stories where all information regarding a request was repeatedly denied exist, including request to the EPA about dangerous chemicals in a neighborhood.

Do police departments keep good records and are they willing to provide the information? You would think so with the court proceedings and the chain of evidence requirements, but obviously not all police departments find this a priority as demonstrated in the following stories.

• Chris at Clarion-Ledger’s First Amendment Blog shares his experience in how his FOI requests of police gun seizures and how it highlights records required by law are not always kept properly by all departments.
• In Santa Cruz, California, the Santa Cruz Indymedia shares their torturous tale of seeking Public Records from the SCPD (Santa Cruz Police Dept.).

Are emails sent and received by government officials public record?

In Missouri, the Governor says no and deletes his while the Attorney General says emails are public records. From my personal experience it is difficult to FOI emails because government officials deny emails on certain topics even exist. I have tried this several times. I know the emails exist because of a confidential source, but the officials deny they sent or received any emails. I have not gone through the trouble of a lawsuit yet, but I am getting to the point where I will have no other choice if I want to pursue the story and the coverup.

Speaking of schools and coverups, here are a couple of stories about school districts and a higher education association.

• NYC Educator exposes how NYC schools have been hiding abuse cases so they won’t be held accountable
• Open Government Blog in Washington State directs everyone to the story about the Tacoma School District may have known a teacher was an alleged rapist even though they denied it.
• Travel with a Beveridge shares how the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency has “incurred $400,000 in legal expenses” fighting attempts to keep public records secret that show abuses within their agency.

Are Politicians listening to the taxpayers or are they regularly changing laws to limit public information access? It appears there is some opening and closing of access.

• Congress is attempting to speed up FOI responses as shared by the Visa Law Blog. We’ll have to wait and see on this one. Congress has a tendency to pass laws and then ignore them.
• A Brief Look At The CORA (Colorado Open Records Act) is a report from Colorado Confidential on how the law has been improved over the years.
• In Texas, the Legislature closes more and more information each year. Grits for Breakfast shares what information they closed to public access this time around.
• In Seattle, Open Government Blog points out that even with a $3.5 Billion budget, open records are hard to come by.

The TroubleMaker in North Carolina shares what records they are currently requesting. They include infidelity, prostitution, basement meetings and the status of an investigation

Grits for Breakfast asks a very important question, Should bloggers get credit for breaking stories?. Many journalist and government agencies view bloggers as just a citizen who shares their opinions and does not research the stories like a true journalist. Grits for Breakfast explains why this is untrue and how journalist and bloggers should be working together for the public good.

To close the carnival, visit In the Pink Texas and read their fun blog post of open records entitled Freedom Fry.

I hope you enjoyed the carnival this week. Don’t forget to submit your posts for next week and keep an eye on your local governing body and school district. Without your watchful eyes, we will all be broke and dependent on the government to feed, cloth and tell us what to think.