Transparency is the buzzword in government these days. So how about some transparency in school finances?

The Maine Education Association (the teacher union) calls school elections "excessive, costly, and burdensome." The state's association of superintendents offers a similar complaint.

But, says Stephen Bowen of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, the vote, formally known as the "budget validation process," is popular with the voters and serves to keep spending under control. Under the law, a school board creates a budget and then submits it to the voters for approval.

Oddly enough, the law mandating the budget validation process is itself subject to a popular vote. (Too bad: Of all the laws to have a sunset provision, it has to be one that gives the public some measure of control over government.) In recent years, voters have shown their approval of the requirement by a 3-1 margin.

Bowen estimates (PDF) that had this relatively recent law been applied over a three-year period, taxpayers would have saved nearly $40 million.