There are grand promises from the Obama administration that the $787 billion in stimulus funding will be spent with “unprecedented levels of transparency.” And in a recent edweek.org interview with Education Secretary Arne Duncan, I asked him whether a parent would be able to follow the money all the way from the federal government down to the school level. He said:

Well, now that some $44 billion is starting to flow out of the ed department’s doors, it’s time to start putting this “unprecedented” transparency to the test.

During Duncan’s visit to the Bruce Randolph School in Denver yesterday, the principal announced the school had already received about $200,000 in stimulus money, and must decide how to spend it by Friday.

So I decided to follow the money—backward. Since everything seems to hinge on these recovery Web sites, I started at Colorado’s official recovery Web site. Besides a general chart listing education as one category for stimulus funds, I could find no mention of any education funding coming into the state under the Web site’s categories of “news”, “accountability board”, “jobs and projects”, “helping people”, “resources”, and “contact.” For good measure, I made sure the Colorado Department of Education didn’t have any specific information (they didn’t).

Hitting a roadblock, I turned to the U.S. Department of Education’s recovery web portal to see if I could find traces of money flowing to Colorado. Buried under “agency reports” are weekly reports in Excel spreadsheet format that detail money flowing out the door. (Are Excel spreadsheets really the best way to be transparent to the general public, many of whom may not have experience with this format?) The latest information from April 7 indicates that the department has spent $11 billion so far—but the information is in broad categories such as special education, Title I, or student financial assistance, with no state-by-state information.

The federal government’s main stimulus Web portal, recovery.gov, has an “accountability and transparency” section containing links to the members of the new federal accountability board, and to reports by inspectors general. Nothing on the flow of money. A separate section on “agency progress and resources” contains the same weekly reports on agency websites, and links back to the agency’s recovery Web sites. Still, no trace of money flowing to Colorado.

So far, all levels of government are failing the transparency test because, besides a mention in a news story, there’s no evidence that money has made its way to Colorado school districts. So far, this unprecedented transparency involves some nice-looking Web sites with spreadsheets showing large chunks of money going out the door. That’s not exactly living up to Duncan and Obama’s promises. To be sure, it’s early. Money has only recently started flowing. But an early test of the transparency claim shows there’s a long way to go.