Federal Investigation of Schools

OUR OPINION: Open records

April 23, 2009

Public’s scrutiny can foil scandals

THE CORRUPTION charge filed Thursday against Pittston+Area+School+District%22>Pittston Area School District Superintendent Ross Scarantino might, or might not, lead to a conviction.

The FBI might, or might not, uncover a busload of “bad apples” in Northeastern Pennsylvania school systems who took, or demanded, cash for contracts. (A press release issued by federal prosecutors stated this was “the first charge in an ongoing investigation …”)

One thing, however, is certain.

Much like the judicial corruption that was exposed earlier this year caused swift changes in the Luzerne County Courthouse, the emerging school scandal will spur plenty of the region’s school board members and administrators to review the way they do business.

And many changes should follow, especially when it comes to transparency.

School officials, including those elected to their posts, must recognize that area residents now rightly expect each district’s financial and other dealings to be completely and easily open to public scrutiny.

For starters, too many Luzerne County districts remain stuck in the Dark Ages when it comes to documents such as board meeting minutes, contracts and budgets. People, including journalists and other watchdogs, who want to review this material typically must go to the school, make a request and then fork over money (25 cents or so per page) to take home copies.

For Pete’s sake, or Bill Gates’, join the Information Age and post that material online!

Presumably administrative assistants sit at personal computers, entering this data, shipping it to printers and then preparing it for its eventual destination: old-fashioned file cabinets.

Instead, why not hit a few computer keys, making the digital information widely accessible via district Web sites and searchable databases? Ditto for all those carefully prepared state and federal reports.

If more people were able to quickly and conveniently eyeball the districts’ business records, potential bad guys would stand less chance of pulling off illegal behavior. Besides, it’s the public school system, not a private club.

Start storing those records where they can be seen.

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