A bill working its way through the General Assembly would require the Academic Standards Review Commission - a recently established state group that is reviewing Common Core standards - to live stream its meetings. The commission would also be required to post all meeting materials online.
A proposed bill that was reported out of the Senate Committee on Appropriations Tuesday contains some first-of-its-kind in North Carolina transparency requirements for a specific state entity.
Senate Bill 14 would require the Academic Stanards Review Commission not only to comply with the N.C. Public Records Law and the N.C. Open Meetings Act, but to go much further. The bill includes a provision that all meeting materials be placed on the commission’s website, including agendas, handouts, presentations and audio recordings of the meetings. The commission is already putting much of that material online.
The bill would also require the commission to live stream all of its official meetings over the Internet so the public can listen in.
Both requirements are new to N.C. state government. The bill would, for a first time, require a specific entity ito stream its meetings online and to place public records related to its meetings online.
The Academic Standards Review Commission is a relatively new state entity. It was created last year by the legislature to review the Common Core education standards adopted by the State Board of Education. The commission is expected to make suggestions to the board of education about revisions to the standards, and the General Assembly required that the board of education consult with the commission before adopting standards. Its work began last fall.