DEAREST READER, LET US TALK ABOUT RECEIPTS.
Not my opinion. Not your opinion.
And certainly not what someone heard at a meeting, was told in a hallway, or believes because they "live here."
Receipts.
A few weeks ago, I published superintendent compensation figures for Wayne County. For Detroit Public Schools Community District, I reported $383,726.
A reader told me my number was wrong and that Superintendent Nikolai Vitti "makes over $500k. Fair enough. Lady Budgetdown can be wrong.
So I did what I always ask readers to do:
I went back to the receipt. And then I posted it.
The document came directly from DPSCD's own compensation disclosure. It lists the General Superintendent's annual rate at $383,726.
That should have been the end of a perfectly ordinary disagreement over a number.
Instead, after being shown the district's own document, I was told:
"Data lies." "I live here." "Questions in person get different answers"
And today, the same reader returned to call the post "propaganda" and "copy and paste." I mean I guess public records shared directly from the district's website could be propaganda 🤷🏽�♀️
There is one rather important detail I did not know when this conversation began.
The person making those comments, Aliya Moore, is currently a candidate for the Detroit Public Schools Community District Board of Education. She is one of the candidates seeking five open seats this November.
And that changes the significance of this exchange for me. Not because Lady Budgetdown endorses or opposes school-board candidates. I don't.
But because school-board members are entrusted with public money, public records, budgets, audits, contracts and financial reports.
And candidates asking voters for that responsibility should be held to a higher standard when discussing those records.
Especially when financial transparency has previously been identified as one of that candidate's own priorities.
Disagree with my methodology.
Question my interpretation.
Find a newer document.
Show me that I pulled the wrong column.
Bring me a contract, amendment, W-2, audit, board resolution or another official record demonstrating that the number should be different.
Please do.
That is how this page works.
But "I live here" is not a financial document.
"Data lies" is not a rebuttal.
And "propaganda" does not make the district's own disclosure disappear.
This isn't really about one Detroit candidate, either.
It applies to every current board member and every person asking voters anywhere in Michigan to put them on a Board of Education.
If you are going to oversee public records, you should be willing to read them.
If you believe a public record is inaccurate, demonstrate why.
If someone produces evidence contradicting something you said, address the evidence.
And if the receipt proves you were mistaken?
Correct yourself.
Lady Budgetdown has done it before, and I will undoubtedly do it again.
Accountability cannot be something we demand only from the other person.
The spectacles work both ways. 👓
Receipts aren't very useful if we only keep the convenient ones.
With receipts and respect. 👑
#LadyBudgetdown #DetroitSchools #DPSCD #SchoolBoard #PublicRecords #SchoolFinance #Transparency #Accountability #TheReceipts