Public School Financial Transparency Act

http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/legislation/2010/H0650.htm

The purpose of this legislation is to provide public transparency for the spending of Idaho’s public school districts. By the end of 2010, the legislation requires that each school district with over 300 students post on the internet all of their expenditures in a pdf format. The legislation also requires by the end 2011, these expenditures must be posted in an internet searchable format.

This legislation does not make any exception for information that is already prohibited from public disclosure by other sections of Idaho Code.

Currently across the country there are at least 500 school district nationwide who have already posted their checkbooks online in a pdf format.

There is no impact to the state General Fund. Posting expenditures online in a pdf format can be done with no additional expense and with little personal time. Establishing a searchable expenditure website can also be created without any additional expense as there are several open source programs available, and other school districts have already created such databases.