I BRING THE RECEIPTS. YOU DECIDE WHAT THEY MEAN.

[Shadowninja]

Dearest reader,

We need to have this conversation again, because apparently "context" has become the word of the week.

Lady Budgetdown is one person.

One.

I have a career. I have a family. I have responsibilities outside this page. I am not a newsroom, I do not have a research staff, and nobody pays me to do this.

Today alone, I have received more than 60 Facebook messages, seven emails, and roughly 80 comments, while also researching districts, checking records, verifying numbers, writing posts, and maintaining the spreadsheets behind all of it.

So let me be exceptionally clear about what happens here.

I find public records.

I compile information that is often scattered across audits, budgets, state databases, transparency reports, meeting minutes and other sources.

I check the numbers. I show you the receipts. And when those records raise a question, I ask the question.

That is the job I have given myself.

What I have NOT done is appoint myself the investigative reporter responsible for calling every superintendent, administrator, board member, consultant, attorney, architect, employee or interested party to collect every possible explanation before I am permitted to show you a public record or ask a question about it.

That isn't how this page works.

If the records themselves contain material context, I include it.

If YOU have additional context, bring it.

If a superintendent has context, bring it.

If a board member has context, bring it.

If a board member candidate has context, bring it.

If an employee believes a number needs explanation, bring it.

And please, make sure that you bring the receipt.

That is precisely why the comment section is open.

I have never claimed that my question is the answer. In fact, the entire point of asking the question is that I am NOT supplying the answer for you. Because then that would be construed as my "opinion" and more people would find something to complain about.

You get to read the records.

You get to read the additional receipts people bring.

You get to decide what you think.

And sometimes this page does something even better: it teaches people how to find the records themselves.

Right now, at least 11 readers are requesting Treasury Form 3881s because they learned here that those records exist, what they are, and that they can request them themselves.

THAT is what I want.

I don't want you dependent on Lady Budgetdown.

I want you to know where the ledger is kept.

So yes, context is welcome.

But respectfully, I cannot research Michigan's 500+ public school districts, answer hundreds of messages and comments, verify every number, maintain the underlying data, AND personally investigate every possible explanation for every number I publish.

If you believe something is missing, don't just tell me to find the context.

Help the ledger.

Find it.

Document it.

Bring the receipt.

There is plenty of room at this table for everyone willing to do the work. Just stop expecting me to do all of it for you or that everyone is entitled for me to do it for you the exact way that you want.

With receipts and respect,

Lady Budgetdown