Evergreen Freedom Foundation
From Sunshine Review
| Evergreen Freedom Foundation | |
| 501(c)(3) | |
 | |
| Leadership: | Bob Williams |
| Political party | Nonpartisan |
| Website | Evergreen Freedom Foundation |
| Transparency Focus | |
| Open Government project | |
Contents |
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| Coalition partner |
The Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF), a 501(c)3, was founded in 1991 with a base of 341 supporters. It is a public policy research organization in Washington state.
Funding comes from 4,500 members and various foundation grants. EFF neither solicits nor accepts funds from public sources.
[edit] Mission
The organization's mission is to advance individual liberty, free enterprise, and limited and accountable government.
[edit] Research
The primary research areas include budget and taxes, education, labor, and citizenship and governance. Within those areas EFF publishes studies, conduct seminars, and works to provide information for legislators, journalists and the general public.
The organization lists its core belief as
"That a freedom loving people must understand the principles from which freedom is derived. EFF's objective, therefore, is to disseminate those key ideals and motivate the citizenry to act upon them."
[edit] Transparency projects
EFF has been involved in two open government projects in 2007 and 2008; taking a strong stance supporting government transparency.
[edit] Sunshine week
EFF participated in Sunshine Week, a national week that recognizes the need for an open government. Johathan Bechtle, who also serves on the board for the Washington Coalition for Open Government wrote the following commentaries for the organization on how Washington could improve their open records policies:
- The need for an independent open records ombudsman that would act on citizens behalf when citizens are denied a request. This would give citizens a way of recourse beside the current sole option of a lawsuit. An independent would also remove a conflict of interest between the Attorney General's office when they are called on to defend the agencies.[1]
- In this same piece it was also noted that would significantly cut down on the amount of money spent not complying with open records or open meetings laws if agencies and government officials could be held personally liable.
- Opposition of HB 1742 and SB 5566 which would obstruct the ability of citizens to check on voter fraud.[2]
- Support of HB 2342, which would have created a searchable database of state budget information and HB 1834 which would have create a 5 day waiting period so that voters could read and comment on budgets before their induction.[3]
[edit] Open government scorecards
EFF created Open Government Scorecards for the state legislature in 2008.
[edit] School District Transparency Project
The new project aims to open school districts’ books and check registers and show them online.
In order for taxpayers to know how a school district spends its money by allowing individuals to look into the details of a district’s budget to understand where their tax dollars go and to whom.
In 2008, the EFF asked each school district, in a letter to the superintendent, in the state to link to their budgets and warrants on the websites' homepages. The Washington Public Records Act makes the information public, the EFF just asked school districts to make it readily available to parents and taxpayers. The EFF then drafted a follow-up letter to each district encouraging greater participation.[4]
As of October 2009, seven school districts have responded by posting their budgets and check registers online, making them the first members of the EFF School District Transparency Honor Roll.
The EFF is encouraging parents and other Washington state taxpayers to encourage the other 289 districts to follow their positive example. Some districts that have refused to post budgets or expenditures online, some districts are considering the request, and some districts have not responded.[5]
[edit] Policy centers
EFF has six main policy centers: Labor Policy Center, Economic Policy Center, Citizenship and Governance, Education Reform Center, Constitutional Law Center, and Property Rights Center.
[edit] Labor
The Labor Policy Center "works to uphold the liberties of individual workers and reform the way our government handles labor relations." They believe individual employees should be able to choose who represents them at work and are against coercive union practices.
[edit] Economic
EFF's Economic Policy Center regularly produces work dealing with the state budget, government transparency, performance audits, and priorities of government.
[edit] Citizenship and Governance
The Citizenship and Governance Center deals with issues of open government, initiative and referendum, and campaign finance.
They have a number of projects, including the Voter Integrity Project, Citizens Action Network, Crossroads Curriculum, and the Advancing Freedom Project.
[edit] Education
The Education Reform Center researches issues of literacy and education spending and reform. They have released the movie Flunked and produce regular podcasts.
EFF's Scott St. Clair reported on the only teachers' strike of early 2009-2010 school year.
[edit] Constitutional Law
The Constitutional Law Center "engages in legal analysis and litigation consistent with the Evergreen Freedom Foundation’s core policy areas to advance a rule of law under which individuals are able to exercise their constitutional liberties and government is limited to its proper role in society."[6]
Currently areas include government accountability, labor policy, education policy, and economic policy.
[edit] Property Rights
EFF began the Property Rights Center with the dual mission of:[7]
- Restoring an individual’s ability to own private property without fear of unwarranted government encroachment; and
- Teaching citizens and government leaders about the paramount role of private property in freedom and prosperity.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ↑ Evergreen Freedom Foundation, Sunshine Week Series: Enforcing open government laws, March 16, 2007
- ↑ Evergreen Freedom Foundation, Sunshine Week Series: Don't count ballots in the dark, March 14, 2007
- ↑ Evergreen Freedom Foundation, Sunshine Week Series: Let the sun shine on state finances , March 13, 2007
- ↑ Washington Public Records Act text
- ↑ Sunshine on School Spending
- ↑ EFF What is the Constitutional Law Center?"
- ↑ EFF Property Rights Center
