Accountability is key to fixing broken government. Accountability is vital to public trust, and also to a healthy internal public culture. Nothing is more corrosive to a department than the knowledge that personal performance doesn't matter. Why go the extra mile if others don't? Like a leak in a tire, energy and pride quickly go flat.

Debate over accountability has focused only on terminating bad employees, leading to a stalemate with public employee unions, who invoke the "rights of due process" of public employees. But these so-called rights have rendered accountability virtually non-existent — 99% of federal employees receive a "fully successful" rating. The George Floyd killing by a cop with a bad record cast a harsh light on the idea of public employee rights. Police, teachers, and other public employees should be judged against their responsibility to the public, not their rights against the public.  

As part of our Campaign for Common Good, at noon (EDT) this Wednesday, July 15, we are hosting a Zoom forum on rebooting the rules on accountability for public employees. Participants include former governor Mitch Daniels, public administration experts Paul Light and Daniel DiSalvo, Manhattan Institute fellow Nicole Gelinas, and others. Our proposed platform is here. 

Preregistration is required.

Thank you for your continued support of our Campaign.

In the News

• Our first platform forum, The Legal Framework for COVID-19 Recovery, is available to watch here. The panelists' opening statements and a short highlight package are also available on our Vimeo page. 

• Our latest platform, Purge School Bureaucracy to Unleash the Human Spirit, is now available. We will host a virtual forum to discuss the platform soon.