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Our view: Shine light on 9-R funding, not CORA

The Durango School District 9-R Board of Education has identified its state legislative priorities for 2025, the first two of which focus on sustaining K-12 funding (Herald, Jan 3.). A third priority focuses on “protecting the district from bad actors that unnecessarily cost the district time and money … including limiting extreme or gratuitous Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) requests,” says the district website.

With a $750 million state budget deficit going into the new year, and education cuts being floated, there is good reason the top two priorities remain so.

Although 9-R’s third legislative priority mirrors that of the Colorado Association of School Boards, it is much broader. The association only focuses on expanding the length of time in which a response is required, to align with the scope of the request.

District 9-R’s third legislative priority is an outlier, and cause for concern.

There is a growing trend, it appears now locally and statewide, to limit access to public records. The Colorado Public (Open) Records Act, enacted in 1969, is the state freedom of information law that was crafted to resemble the federal Freedom of Information Act that preceded it in 1966.

FOIA and CORA are what citizens and the press have used for decades to “shine a light” on the workings of government that make use of public funds. It is why The Washington Post’s slogan is “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”

Historically, public funds have been misused, crime and corruption has ensued, when government business is conducted in secret, when the public remains in the dark, especially about the use of taxpayer money.

“Bad, malicious actors, extreme, gratuitous, paperwork terrorism” … these are all written and verbal references the 9-R board has made to describe the people behind these requests and their actions, which is in itself extreme.

Some people truly have made this into an industry suing school districts statewide and is likely where the legislative priority comes from. Also, possibly the written and verbal harassment board members and staff members experienced during and since COVID-19.

Schools and boards have become targets and places of controversy, as we’ve witnessed most recently with the district’s flag policy (Herald, Oct. 16). It is not an easy job. It is also within the board’s purview to protect district resources, its staff and their important work supporting kids and families.

The Herald’s most recent CORA request for all 9-R public record requests received between Jan. 1, 2023, and Dec. 23, 2024, totaled 26. Nine in 2023 and 17 in 2024. Just a hair over one per month.

The Herald’s editorial board questions whether this third priority rises to the importance of the first two, and is uncertain about the scope of the problem it intends to solve. Is an average of one CORA request per month a significant enough cost in staff time to warrant state-level advocacy?

Jeff Roberts, executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, questions this focus, too. Roberts shared that he believes things are moving in the wrong direction. Instead of expanding access to records, he said there are more efforts that create more obstacles at the school board level and the Legislature is exempting itself from various open meetings laws.

Roberts said that fees charged for requests had already increased 23%. “I don’t see the point of creating more obstacles for record requesters … what they’ve (9-R) actually got in the way of requests, that’s not a lot over two years,” he said.

We are grateful for the time and dedication 9-R’s superb Superintendent Karen Cheser, 9-R board members and staff members put into sustaining funding for and educating our children. We’d encourage this year’s focus to remain on the critical work of retaining public funding for K-12 education and leave CORA alone.