Colorado Spending Transparency

Facing substantial budget cuts, Colorado’s K-12 education establishment may have to rethink how it spends money courtesy of the transparency movement we have championed.  Using transparency Web sites from Jeffco and Douglas County Schools as well as information from Denver Public Schools, the Denver Post found “found millions of dollars being spent with limited oversight on food, travel and other discretionary items.”

Among the expenses buried in the thousands of transactions: $270 for scented pencils for a Douglas County school, $1,228 for books at a Denver school from a company that uses color-scheme psychology, and $4,113 for doughnuts and burritos for breakfast meetings at a Denver high school

In response to the investigation, one school district already has changed its policies on spending. With ”so much charged in food, entertainment, travel and other discretionary items” Denver Public Schools “issued new rules for credit-card holders in response to The Post’s findings.”

For anyone interested in bringing transparency to their school district, Independence Institute policy analyst Ben DeGrow’s paper “What Should District Financial Transparency Look Like?” is a must read.