It doesn't matter

This quote from Metro Nashville Public School Boards Chairman Marsha Warden is in today's Tennessean:

Marsha Warden, school board chairwoman, said its operations were transparent and would continue to be. However, the board is looking to be more sensitive to personal issues for employees and parents, she said.

"In no way, we intended to limit anyone's access to the performance of the district, and certainly the director's evaluation is a direct measurement of how we are doing as a district," Warden said. "I just don't know how many people have their personnel evaluation publicly scrutinized."

It doesn't matter how many of us have this sort of scrutiny. The fact is Pedro Garcia (and others) took the job knowing we had these minimal sunshine laws in this state and their personnel information would be and should be public record. If they objected to the 'scrutiny' they should not have taken the job.

The only people I'm concerned about is the children who are witnesses to the conduct of their teachers and the staff. I hate having them in the witness chair with all those adults surrounding them asking them over and over what happened, did that really happen, are you sure? But it's for their sake that we've got to ensure this process is as open as possible so that we know what to look for and who to be looking at. For their sake--accountability, full and legitimate accountably--does matter and is worth fighting for.