March 14 to 21 has been declared by the American Society of News
Editors as "Sunshine Week," a time to shine the spotlight on the rights
of the people to open government and freedom of information.
This week, and once a week after, the Missourian will highlight another government record. You can learn a lot about your community, state and country. Open records help people keep government in check and help them better understand how government affects their lives.
The records: The Kids Count in Missouri Public Education Project compares information and statistical trends on the conditions of our state’s children and families across the 114 counties of Missouri and the City of St. Louis.
Why you’d want them: The data examines a collection of primary indicators of the well-being of children in the state and ranks the areas based on these findings.
Where you get the records: The statistics are available at http://www.mokids.org/KIDSCOUNT/KIDSCOUNTMissouri.aspx. Select a year from the drop-down menu and roll over any county to learn more about the well being of children in the area in 10 different areas measured in the compilation of the data. Click on a county for a more detailed history and break down of the statistics and see which trends are getting better or worse.
For national statistics on the same topic, go to http://datacenter.kidscount.org/ and click on the "data by state," "data across states" or the "data book" tabs for more information.
How much it will cost: The information is free.