Who Controls the Schoolhouse Purse?
Walla Walla taxpayers demand fiscal transparency as the school board ignores mandatory financial reporting.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The school law requires the board of education in every city of ten thousand or more inhabitants to make an annual printed statement showing in detail the financial transactions of the district for the fiscal year, which ends on June 30th. So far this law has been ignored in Walla Walla. As the school board last year expended in round numbers $80,000, the taxpayers have a right to demand that the detailed report required by law shall be made. There is no more reason why the school board should disregard the law requiring such reports than for the city clerk or the city treasurer to fail to make the annual reports required by the city charter. Walla Walla is no longer a country village. Its financial transactions during the year aggregate huge sums and the people who have to pay the bills have a right to know where every cent of their money goes.
“The people who have to pay the bills have a right to know where every cent of their money goes.”
Public oversight of school budgets remains a cornerstone of municipal democracy. Just as in 1902, debates over how much 'detail' is required in district reporting continue to define the tension between administrative ease and taxpayer accountability in Walla Walla.
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