What You Know Matters

My colleagues have posted recently about the importance of the upcoming city council and school board elections; here in Kansas, we’ll be voting on those local individuals representing us in April and now is the time to start thinking about solid, conservative candidates who can carry the people’s voices.

Changing the world starts in our own backyard, and I firmly believe that one of the most important things that you can do tackle your own backyard.  To understand the issues that you’re facing, what your city council, school board, or county commission is doing can take a lot of time to research though.  Often the news media fails to cover their actions in any real depth, and that can leave a true information void that damages our ability to hold our elected representatives accountable, whether for a job well done, or for a vote cast poorly.

Here in Kansas, though, we have a new, unique tool to help us.  We always say at American Majority that we give away so much because we believe that knowledge is power, and we want to take the power out of the hands of the elite, the bureaucracy, and place it in the hands of the people.   A great partner in this effort is the Kansas Policy Institute, which is daily conducting research and monitoring issues within our state.  And this week, they’re giving all of us an entirely new, free tool to help us hold government accountable.

It’s called KansasOpenGov.org and on the site, you can easily find such information as the state checkbook, school districts revenue and spending per pupil (including a comparison tool, where you can see how your district ranks against others in the state), state pay and benefits for employees, state union and non-union employee contracts, even detailed property tax information listed by county, so you can see exactly what your area looks like against other like areas in the state.

What’s the value of all this?  If knowledge is power, then easily-obtained knowledge is worth gold.  In my time at American Majority, I have spent countless hours searching for information which was previously very difficult to find, compile and understand- now, I can easily and quickly access it online, see it broken down and analyzed for me as well as have access to the raw data.

Check it out.  Know what’s happening in your backyard.  And let’s get actively involved in changing the game in our own communities- whether it’s holding your school board accountable for their spending, standing up to a county commission that wants to increase your taxes, or stepping up to put your name on the ballot for city council or school board.  Ronald Reagan once said that all great change in America begins at the dinner table.  He was right.  And today, all great change begins in our own backyard.