Opinion: Bring California Colleges’ Foundations Under Sunshine Law

California colleges’ and universities’ nonprofit foundations should be subject to the state’s Public Records Act, says an editorial in the Sacramento Bee.

Citing recent reports that Sonoma State University’s foundation might be out $1-million as a result of a loan to a board member who can’t repay, the editorial urges state lawmakers to close a “major loophole” in the records law that allows such organizations to escape the scrutiny to which the institutions themselves are held.

Though they are part of the public campuses’ educational missions because they raise money to support college priorities, the foundations “operate in a netherworld, outside of the normal rules for public accountability,” the newspaper writes.