The nation's charter schools largely are created, overseen and policed by pro-charter advocates, resulting in "an epidemic of fraud, waste, and mismanagement that would not be tolerated in [traditional] public schools," according to the Center for Media and Democracy.
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Read More… from Report: Charter school budgets are a ‘black hole’ of public information
SALT LAKE CITY — A physics professor, curious about local political spending, has won his Utah Supreme Court bid to open records from the former Envision Ogden civic group.
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Read More… from Utah: Weber State professor wins bid to open campaign finance records
He was a Repubican State Representative for 10 years but then John Dougall was successful in running for the office of State Auditor. On KVNU's For the People program Thursday, Dougall said as a legislator he tried to be a "Constitutional watchdog" and that effort has continued in his new position.
He said one reason he ran was because he felt the auditor's office should be more transparent and he continues to have that for a goal.
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In the typical legislative session, a lot of important work is quietly undertaken outside the glare of attention granted to those high-profile and politically charged issues that grab the lion’s share of news coverage. Such is the case with some meaningful changes to Utah’s records laws that will encourage greater government transparency.
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A proposal to invite all 87 of Utah's Republican state lawmakers into a closed-door debate on health care policy is raising concerns.
State senators appeared Monday to be balking at the idea of a joint behind-the-scenes discussion with their House counterparts about Gov. Gary Herbert's Healthy Utah Medicaid expansion plan before voting on a hallmark issue of the 2015 legislative session.
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People seeking to request open records from state agencies can now go online to do so.
State administrators opened the Open Records Portal at http://openrecords.utah.gov last week in an effort to make it easier for residents to identify which agency is responsible for which records and to submit a request.
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Read More… from New online portal makes open-records requests easier
A new study puts the Beehive State near the top when it comes to making government data accessible. The Center for Data Innovation gave Utah a score of 8, which is the highest possible, for its open data policies.
From Roll Call: "Here’s why the report thinks having both a detailed open data policy and open data portals that provide data in machine-readable formats and through a single location are important:
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Read More… from Utah Scores High for Government Data Transparency
Laws such as the federal Freedom of Information Act and the Utah Government Records Access and Management Act were designed as ways to keep the things government entities do in the sunlight. The idea is that people should have access to what their government is doing. Being able to see what government entities are doing is vital to maintaining a society that embraces democratic principles.
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A few open government and FOIA news items selected from many of interest that we might or might not have drawn attention to earlier. Be sure to check out Sunshine Week 2012 News while you're at it.
Hacking as a Civic Duty
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