Three members of the Stafford School Board claim they are "shocked and dismayed" to learn that constituents' correspondence, including e-mails, must be disclosed under Virginia's open-records law. Evidently they didn't become familiarized with the state's Freedom of Information Act when they took office – even though the law requires that the training must occur for all public officials as soon as they take office.

Does the law "squash the rights of private citizens to freely correspond with their representatives," as claimed?

Well, for those who want to communicate secretly 1-on-1, there's still the telephone, the street-corner conversation, the water-cooler discussion, the after-church huddle.

But let's not lose sight of the real reason "constituents' correspondence" needs to be open to public inspection: How else are we to have an informed citizenry if we keep confidential the correspondence from big campaign contributors (think energy-policy communication between the Vice President and the oil industry), the special-interests' secret deals, the behind-scenes input that's sought by anybody pushing a secret agenda.

As the late Henry Howell once said, there's more going around in the dark than Santa. Or, as Ronald Regan reminded us, "trust, but verify." Keeping government, including school boards, accessible and accountable, is, after all, what the state's FOI Act is all about.