Sunshine Week is here, championing the public’s right to know and fighting government secrecy that threatens liberty and accountability. The week honors James Madison’s birthday (March 16, 1751), the Bill of Rights architect who warned a government without public information risks farce or tragedy.

Coordinated by the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida, it began in Florida post-9/11 as editors battled rising government exemptions under national security pretexts. Sunshine Sunday launched in 2002; national expansion followed in 2005 with Knight Foundation backing.

Americans for Prosperity Foundation is holding its sixth annual Sunshine Week Symposium on March 18, with experts on proactive disclosure, digital records, AI processing, copyright barriers and enforcement. Register here.

In Rhode Island, the importance of Sunshine Week is directly highlighted by Solas v. South Kingstown School Committee, where mother Nicole Solas, represented by the Goldwater Institute, sued after being barred from meetings of the district’s taxpayer-funded BIPOC Advisory Board.The board, created and funded publicly to advise on hiring, discipline and curriculum, held closed sessions despite Rhode Island’s Open Meetings Act requiring transparency for public bodies with advisory power.

The case underscores Sunshine Week’s core message: public business must occur openly to protect taxpayers and parents from overreach. Rhode Island taxpayers deserve sunlight on school decisions affecting their children and wallets secrecy invites waste and unaccountable power.