School District Transparency Project

How do we begin to improve education outcomes for our kids, bring greater efficiency and value to our schools and involve more community members in the education mission? Opening our school districts’ books and check registers for all to see is a good place to start.

Financial transparency in the form of easily-accessible budget and spending information sheds light on what is often an opaque budget process. Taxpayers deserve to know how a school district spends their money, and fiscal transparency gives them that chance by allowing individuals to look into the details of a district’s budget to understand where their tax dollars go (or don’t go, as the case may be)—and to whom.

Last year, the Freedom Foundation asked each school district in the state to link to their budgets and warrants (itemized check registers) on their website’s homepage. The information is already public under Washington’s public records law; we are simply asking school districts to make it readily available to parents and taxpayers. Following up on our initial efforts from 2008, we drafted a follow-up letter to each district encouraging greater participation.

So far, seven school districts have responded by posting their budgets and check registers online! They are the first members of our School District Transparency Honor Roll. We need your help as parents, taxpayers and community leaders to encourage the other 289 districts to follow their positive example.

Explore our site to find out whether your school district is transparent and what you can do to advance transparency in education spending.

Transparency Benefits for All

Washington State School District Transparency Honor Roll

How Transparent is Your District?

  •             Districts that have refused to post budgets or expenditures online
  •             Districts considering our request
  •             Districts that did not respond

Get Involved: How to Approach Your School Board

What's new


 A Friendly Response Regarding School District Transparency
Commentary | Libertylive.org | October 13, 2009