Where Did the Cash Go? The Rye School District Won’t Say.

Americans have a right to know what their government is up to, whether they’re parents trying to find out what’s going in public schools or watchdogs asking where taxpayer money is going. But bureaucrats at all levels of government, especially America’s K-12 schools, are closing government operations to the public.

Openness and transparency ought to be the standard. But in many cases, government secrecy prevails.

In the Rye City School District, officials forked over more than $31,000 to a third-party vendor that conducts “equity audits.” But the school district is refusing to say any more. We’re a pair of New York attorneys troubled by this lack of transparency, and that’s why we’re taking legal action on behalf of the Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix-based nonprofit and government watchdog. Our lawsuit seeks to shine a light on how the school district is spending taxpayer funds.

Read the rest of the op-ed at The Journal News. 

Cam Macdonald is Executive Director of the Albany-based Government Justice Center. David Carey is a private attorney who practices in the New York City metropolitan area.