This type of behavior is troublesome for many reasons. First, public
documents are public - period. Not some of them but all of them.
Vilaseca knows the district specific Excel spreadsheet document is
public but refused to release it until school districts had had a chance
to review it first.
Secondly, it takes time to file a complaint and sue for release of
public documents under freedom of information laws. Vilaseca said the
document would be released later in the week, prior to a press
conference about the document. This kind of manipulation of the law and
public process to suit his own PR needs paints an unflattering picture
of the state's commissioner of education as a man whose compliance with
the law is based on his own political ends.
Thirdly, the public black eye that results from Vilaseca's flouting of
the law is bound to reflect badly on the entire Vermont Department of
Education - which, quite frankly, does not deserve the black eye.
But, finally, what is really irksome and offensive about the
commissioner's refusal to release a document that clearly falls into the
realm of public in a timely fashion is that it flies in the face of
some fundamental tenets on which our form of government is based.
Tantamount to the state's constitution and the United States
Constitution is the principle that government may not operate behind
closed doors nor keep its doings secret from the governed.
Equally troublesome is the fact that the state's highest ranking elected
official, Governor Jim Douglas, failed to weigh in and direct his
appointed official to quit stalling and release the document.
Under statute, a document is either public or it's not. When it is
public, there is no legal reason to withhold it until it is reviewed by
all whom it concerns. To argue that a delay of a day or two in its
release ignores the fact that Vilaseca has failed to obey the law.
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