School board organization could become subject to Pa.’s open records law

The organization that represents Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts would be required to live under the same transparency rules as most other governmental agencies under legislation that passed the Senate on Monday by a near party-line 28-22 vote.

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill, would subject the Pennsylvania School Boards Association to the state’s Right to Know Law. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration.

“This legislation is a crucial step to ensure that all entities that receive public benefits are transparent and accountable,” Phillips-Hill said in a statement. “The public deserves to know how their tax dollars are being spent.”

A request for comment from the school boards association following the late afternoon vote was unsuccessful.

This legislation comes after a recent state Supreme Court ruling that classified the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association as a public entity subject to the Right to Know Law. The court found that since the PIAA receives funding from public schools it’s classified as a state-affiliated entity and Phillips-Hill said that also fits a description of the school boards association.

What’s more, Phillips-Hill pointed out the school boards group participates in the Public School Employees’ Retirement System and has since 1939. Additionally, taxpayers also subsidize the association’s Social Security reimbursement out of the state budget in the funding for school employees’ Social Security.

“The state does not afford any other private nonprofit membership association the option to participate in the public education pension system or pay a portion of its Social Security,” she said.

While there are other statewide associations that represent county and local municipal officials, they do not participate in a state pension system and she said her bill was an opportunity to correct that disparity.

Sen. Lindsey Williams of Allegheny was the only Democrat to break with her caucus and join all but one Republican in supporting the bill. Williams said in a statement that she posts her expenses online and had voted to expand transparency requirements on the four state-related universities: Penn State, Pitt, Temple and Lincoln.

“I believe that the Pennsylvania School Boards Association has a strong argument that they are not a state-affiliated entity, but without more information — for me, it remains a slightly gray area,” Williams said. “When in doubt, I am always going to be in favor of more transparency and accountability.”

Sen. Camera Bartolotta of Washington County was the sole Republican who opposed the bill. She had introduced separate legislation that would remove PSBA from the school employees’ pension system, which she later said would have made subjecting the organization to the Right to Know law moot.

During the floor debate on the bill, Sen. Katie Muth, D-Montgomery County, was unsuccessful in her attempts to amend the bill to subject entities that provide funding and assistance to elected state leaders or those that receive grants and loans from the state to the Right to Know Law.