What is the GRPS afraid of? Interview with Education Activists about FOIA requests

Yesterday, we sat down to interview two local education activists, Melissa Courtade and Jack Prince. The interview is just under 20 minutes and came about because of the difficult time both of these education activists had with attempting to access documents that were public.

As they discuss in the interview, it took nearly two months to get documents they had requested from the Grand Rapids Public Schools. They both followed the Freedom of Information Act requirements, but were given the run around for nearly two months.

As you will hear in the interview, the community members came back to the GRPS Administration building and demanded to talk with someone. After they told GRPS staff members that they had spoken with a lawyer about what was happening, the GRPS lawyer gave them over 200 pages of documents within a few hours.

The information these two education activists were requesting was basic information that should be readily available to anyone, especially to those who live in the district.