DEAREST READER...
I would like to demonstrate, once again, why Lady Budgetdown is perpetually behind. 😂🐇
Last night, what began with a school board member from North Carolina asking a question somehow ended with me examining Michigan's transparency system, Munetrix, private equity, and eventually realizing there is an entire private business ecosystem surrounding public education.
You know. A perfectly normal evening around here.
This morning, I was supposed to answer comments.
Then Kallie happened.
Kallie, who already supplied me with enough Oxford breadcrumbs yesterday to keep the spectacles busy for quite some time casually mentioned something else I should include in this new project:
The associations.
Superintendent associations.
School board associations.
Principal associations.
Administrator associations.
Business-official associations.
And my brain immediately went:
Wait.
Districts publicly report the dues they pay to these organizations.
🐇
How much are they actually paying?
🐇🐇
Do the same organizations appear over and over?
🐇🐇🐇
What would happen if I pulled the reports from, say... 30 Michigan school districts and stacked all those receipts together?
And there it is.
I have not even finished the rabbit holes Kallie gave me YESTERDAY, and somehow she has handed me another one.
So, coffee is being poured.
I'm heading to the computer.
And I'm going to select approximately 30 Michigan districts of different sizes and from different parts of the state and compile their publicly reported association dues.
I have an instinct about what we're going to see.
But you know the rule around here:
INSTINCTS DON'T GET PUBLISHED AS FINDINGS.
RECEIPTS DO.
So let's find out.
☕ Coffee: pouring.
📑 Dues reports: incoming.
🐇 Kallie: officially blamed.
With receipts and respect,
Lady Budgetdown
#LadyBudgetdown #WithReceiptsAndRespect #MichiganSchools #SchoolFinance #PublicMoneyPublicQuestions #TaxpayerTransparency #FollowTheMoney #TheReceipts #RabbitHole