More press coverage from the Bismarck Tribune

The North Dakota Policy Council hopes to shed some light on school financial information. The Sunshine on Schools project launched earlier this month compiles financial information, enrollment information and other school reports from the Department of Public Instruction.

The mainstream media is catching on… If you want to know where your community’s school district ranks in North Dakota on things such as teacher compensation and cost per pupil, a new Web site will tell you just that.

The GF Herald uses Sunshine on Schools when interviewing Grand Forks School District school board candidates. Here was a question posed to incumbent Eric Lunn:

Q. As far as finances go, a conservative critique has surfaced in North Dakota in the past few years, as you know. The Sunshine on Schools Web site, which the North Dakota Policy Council put together, has charts tracking financial and demographic data from districts around the state. The Grand Forks School District charts show revenues and expenses tracking steadily upward while enrollment declines. The site also points out that Grand Forks’ new superintendent will be the highest paid superintendent in the state.

How do you respond to complaints that the school district’s expenses are too high?

State Policy Blog: Shining Some Light on School Funding

To view the article, click HERE

North Dakota Policy Council & the Landowners Association of North Dakota

Town Hall Meeting Tuesday March 11, 2008 @ 7PM

Cato Institute Senior Fellow Randal O'Toole

BISMARCK - Grand Forks Mayor Mike Brown recently endorsed the Green Grand Forks committee. Its task is to “chart the way” toward a “greener” Grand Forks.

IN THE MAIL : Anti-‘Green GF' column made me a supporter

Published Thursday, January 31, 2008

GRAND FORKS - When I read the Viewpoint by Brett Narloch, my jaw dropped
(“Burning money: The cost of GF going ‘green,'" Page 4A, Jan. 25).

Besides all the misinformation it contained, it appalled me because it showed that there are people in North Dakota who honestly don't feel any moral or ethical obligation to think of anyone besides themselves.

VIEWPOINT : Burning money: The cost of GF going ‘green'

By Brett Narloch , Published Friday, January 25, 2008

BISMARCK - Grand Forks Mayor Mike Brown recently endorsed the Green Grand Forks committee. Its task is to “chart the way” toward a “greener” Grand Forks.

Brown also is a signatory to the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which is based on the Kyoto Protocol and would force the U.S. to reduce greenhouse emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels.

Our report concerning land use planning and extraterritorial zoning appeared in a couple newspapers:

I was on North Dakota's most popular blog's podcast tonight.  The Sayanything blog owner Rob Port, Dakota Beacon owner Steve Cates, and I talked a bit about extraterritorial zoning and land use plans.

I was pleased to see the Tribune's Sunday editorial, "Centers of Excellence job figures necessary." In the editorial, the Tribune took the North Dakota Commerce Department to task regarding the department's actual mission, which is to "create new wealth and generate high-paying, career-track jobs."

The North Dakota Policy Council is in the media, again.  This time it is more the report we released regarding transportation spending in the wake of the I-35 bridge collapse in the Twin Cities.  You can read Government & Economic Development: Economic Development Trumps Public Safety? by following the link. 

The report made the news in a couple newspapers.

The North Dakota Policy's Sunshine on Schools has received some media attention since it was announced on Monday.

When Brett Narloch of the North Dakota Policy Council came out with a proposal to require government schools to put their budgets on public-access Web pages, he got some strange criticism. The blogger for the state's Democratic Party attacked, but didn't address one single issue of Narloch's proposal. Instead, he sniped at Narloch's past political activities, noting Narloch liked CAFTA, and had advocated private accounts in Social Security to the current uninvested pension system.

Tonight I was on the Dakota Talk Podcast, a project of Sayanything Blog.  We talked about Sunshine on Schools.  You can listen to a recording of the podcasy by clicking HERE.

Here is our news clip about Sunshine on Schools.

North Dakota public school districts would post all of their financial data online if a bill mandating them to do so is passed.

That’s the wish of the North Dakota Policy Council, a nonprofit that educates the public on public policy matters.