If American taxpayers are funding an organization’s work, they deserve to know how their money is spent. But in its quest for secrecy, the taxpayer-funded Tennessee School Boards Association, or the TSBA, is suing a private citizen simply for requesting records the courts have already said he is entitled to receive. That’s wrong, which is why the Goldwater Institute and the Beacon Center of Tennessee are teaming up to ensure that government proxies like the TSBA remain accountable to the citizens who foot their bills.
On Tuesday, Goldwater and the Beacon Center filed a lawsuit in Davidson County Chancery Court, asking the court to affirm that the TSBA remains fully subject to Tennessee’s open records law.
The lawsuit comes after the TSBA—in an effort to game the system and choose its own legal opponent—agreed to provide records to the Beacon Center while suing a private citizen, Peter Maher, for requesting similar records. The TSBA is asking a court to strip away transparency mandates it ordered back in 2020.
“The Goldwater Institute and the Beacon Center are not willing to play the Tennessee School Boards Association’s disingenuous game,” said David Roland, the Goldwater Institute’s Director of Allied Litigation. “The fact of the matter is, the bulk of the TSBA’s funding comes from Tennessee taxpayers. In our self-governing society, it’s imperative that those taxpayers be allowed to know how the TSBA is using public funds or conducting public activities.”
A Taxpayer-Funded Organization that Craves Secrecy
The TSBA is an organization composed of local Tennessee school boards. Recognized by the state legislature since 1953, it trains government officials and lobbies on public policy. Most importantly, almost 90 percent of its funding comes directly from public sources.
In 2020 the Beacon Center took the TSBA to court, arguing that it must respond to citizens’ requests for public records. This resulted in a landmark victory that established the TSBA as the “functional equivalent of a government agency” subject to the Tennessee Public Records Act.
Rather than embracing transparency, however, the TSBA has been looking for ways to escape public oversight. Citing minor statutory updates, the TSBA now claims it has transformed into a “private membership organization” and that the public school board funds paid into its coffers are merely “membership fees” rather than public grants.
Gaming the System, Bullying Citizens
The true nature of the TSBA’s legal strategy emerged when citizen Peter Maher submitted a records request seeking basic accountability regarding its funding, membership, legal services, and lobbying activities. Rather than complying with the open records law, the TSBA sued Maher, asking a court to strip away the transparency it had mandated in 2020.
When the Beacon Center followed up with its own public records request, the TSBA attempted to play games. It claimed it wasn’t required to comply with the law, yet offered to produce the documents for the Beacon Center anyway—hoping to stave off a Beacon Center lawsuit while continuing its own litigation against Maher.
The Goldwater Institute and the Beacon Center aren’t having it.
“In 2020, a court held that the Tennessee School Board Association is the functional equivalent of a government entity under Tennessee’s public records law. The Association is now asking a court to undo that ruling. The statutes that made it governmental, however, are still on the books. It still receives money from public bodies, and every school board in the state remains a member,” Beacon Center Attorney Ben Stormes said. “Parents and taxpayers have a right to transparency when it comes to education policy in Tennessee.”
This case is crucial because there are similar taxpayer-funded organizations all over the country with memberships made up of public officials and with the express goal of influencing public policies—all while attempting to evade public oversight. By taking the fight to the TSBA, the Goldwater Institute and the Beacon Center are protecting Tennessee taxpayers and creating a powerful legal template to hold quasi-governmental proxies accountable nationwide.
Public institutions and their proxies work for the people. They must not be allowed to draw the vast majority of their revenue from public coffers while keeping taxpayers in the dark about their operations.
Click here to read the Goldwater Institute’s and the Beacon Center’s joint lawsuit against the Tennessee School Boards Association. Click here to learn more about the case.
