Open Records

In a recent assignment for my journalism class, we were asked to do a PA Open Records Challenge. This consisted of finding where Pennsylvania ranks in the Better Government Association's survey of open record laws and what states rank below PA. I found that PA is ranked 47th and the only states below it are Alabama and Montana.

Then we looked at www.passopenrecords.org to see if the legislators in our respective areas have signed on to support improving PA's open records law. Bob Bastian, who is the representative of my county, Somerset County, had already signed on in support.

The next step for us was to make an open records request. I made my request to my alma mater, Conemaugh Township high school, for a copy of the superintendent's contract. I mailed my request to the high school's business office on March 31st and received it by April 2nd.

Before doing this project, I would have thought that obtaining something like this would be hard and time consuming, but I really didn't have any trouble getting the contract and the school mailed it to me in a timely fashion.

I actually think that this activity was a great exercise for us because, as journalism students, we should all know how to get information that the public is entitled to. Most people don't know how to obtain the information or they don't know that they can get it, so this challenge helped a lot.