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School District violates Rule of Law [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-12-10  

Political legitimacy is a basic condition of government. Without legitimacy, governments and societies collapse. Legitimacy in civil affairs can only exist by the exercise of actions based on rational and reasonable rules.

Rule of Law or Equality under the Law is essential. There must be no double standards. No tiered system of justice.

There must be one nation of the people, by the people and for the people. One nation founded on one system of laws.

All the people under one standard of justice. The powerful cannot have a separate system of justice.

Another requirement for legitimacy is transparency. Being honest with the public is the basis of a constitutional democracy.

When individuals fail to be honest to society, they are by default, corrupt. When the governing elite fail to be honest with the people, there is no nation. There are only capricious acts by the powerful over the powerless. When there is no rule of law or transparency there can be no check on power, there can be no balance.

Without honesty and equality under the law, there can be no social contract. There can be no consent of the governed when the governed are lied to by the government or denied access to the facts. When the elites who govern, abuse power by refusing to be honest, more than an erosion of faith occurs. The very foundation which the state is built upon is broken.

One example of this corruption, is when the elites refuse to release public records. Public records paid for by the people, and sanctioned by the very ones who claim to represent the people cannot be kept from the people. There must be transparency in government in order to make choices based on facts not fantasy. Transparency is essential so the governed can honestly assess the actions of those who acquired and wield power over others. When we the people are not given accurate information we cannot make accurate choices. To deny transparency is to attack a basic principle of our constitutional republic.

It is more than disturbing then when officials in the Federal / state and local governments refuse to release reports on the actions of its members. Members who are employees of the public, i.e. public servants.

It is just as disturbing when local school boards refuse to release public documents about its operations.

The question is :

"Why do governing bodies, in particular the P.U.S.D. refuse to release public records to the public?" "Why do they refuse to release the amount the school district spends on legal counsel?” “Why does the school board refuse to even release the number of lawsuits and settlements made by the school board?"

The only answer, "They have something to hide."

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