Dearest reader,
Lady Budgetdown would like to set the spectacles down for a moment and have a slightly different conversation. 🪶
This page has grown considerably faster than I ever expected it to.
And with that growth have come more districts, more breadcrumbs, more messages, more questions, and occasionally, more arguments about the receipts themselves.
So perhaps it is time I explain what actually happens behind this little ledger.
There is one human being behind Lady Budgetdown. I have a career. I have a family. I have a life outside this page. I am not employed by Lady Budgetdown, there is no staff sitting behind the curtain, and nobody pays me to do this.
I do it because I believe public-school dollars deserve scrutiny, teachers deserve resources in their classrooms, and taxpayers deserve to understand where their money goes.
And researching a district is considerably more involved than asking AI a question and posting whatever appears on the screen.
Yes, Lady Budgetdown uses AI.
It is a tool, and a very useful one.
But here is what that actually looks like.
Sometimes a reader sends me a breadcrumb. Sometimes I notice something myself. Sometimes research into one district leads somewhere completely unexpected.
Documents are gathered.
Budgets. Audits. Transparency reports. Bulletin 1014. MiSchoolData. NCES. Contracts. Compensation reports. Board documents. State records. Federal records.
Sometimes I find them. Sometimes AI helps locate them. Sometimes a district has buried something so thoroughly that I have to go hunting for it myself.
Then we start pulling on the thread.
AI may notice something I didn't.
I may notice something AI didn't.
A number looks strange, so it gets calculated again.
Two documents don't appear to agree, so we go back and figure out why.
Sometimes a breadcrumb becomes an entire investigation.
Sometimes we spend an hour following one only to discover there is no story there at all.
And when that happens?
It doesn't get posted. Because the purpose isn't to manufacture a story. It's to find out what the records actually show.
Then comes the writing.
I read it.
I question it.
I change it.
I send it back.
I make sure the wording says what the evidence supports, and no more.
And then, dear reader, there are the graphics.
Those who have been here awhile may appreciate knowing that Lady Budgetdown can apparently spend an unreasonable amount of time deciding that a crown is too large, a number doesn't stand out enough, a quill is in the wrong place, or the entire thing simply does not look right.
Some graphics go through version after version before you ever see them.
Nothing gets published simply because AI produced it.
I decide what gets investigated.
I decide what sources are reliable enough to use.
I review the work.
I approve the final post.
And when something doesn't look right, we go back to the receipts. Which brings me to something important as this page continues to grow.
Please question Lady Budgetdown.
Seriously.
If I publish a number that you believe is wrong, tell me.
If I missed a document, bring it.
If the district has newer information, send it.
If you can show me an error using an authoritative source, I will examine it, and if I am wrong, I will correct it publicly. That has always been the rule around here.
But a Google search result is not automatically superior to the district's audited financial statement.
An AI Overview is not superior to Michigan Department of Education data.
And repeatedly insisting that an official number must be wrong because Google produced a different number does not make the official record disappear.
Every hour I spend going in circles over something already documented in the original source is an hour I'm not opening another district, following another breadcrumb, or answering one of the many messages waiting in the inbox.
And lately, the ledger is piling up. So I am going to become a little more protective of that time.
Disagreement is welcome.
Questions are welcome.
Corrections are especially welcome.
Bring the receipts and Lady Budgetdown will happily put the spectacles back on.
But personal attacks, insults, endless circular arguments, or repeatedly spreading information after the underlying record has been provided will not receive unlimited space or unlimited amounts of my time.
That isn't censorship.
You are free to disagree with Lady Budgetdown anywhere you please.
But nobody is entitled to use this page indefinitely to attack the person who spends her own time creating it.
There are far too many unopened ledgers waiting on the desk. And I would much rather spend my time opening those.
With receipts & respect,
- Lady Budgetdown