Article Published: Tuesday, August 02, 2005 - 2:58:16 PM PST

THE computer was supposed to launch us unfettered into the information age. Unfortunately, we've seen the future and there's no such thing as free information.

Every request for information adds to the one before, creating layer upon layer of data in a newfangled digital bureaucracy. Information is not a click away, a glaring misconception. In fact, with billions of bits of information floating in cyberspace, retrieving valuable information has become harder and more labor intensive.

In particular, school districts have been weighed down by the burden of information reporting, mostly to other government agencies. The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires school districts to report on standardized test scores and other data. While school accountability is a positive benefit for parents, the benefit comes with a steep cost the burden of retrieving data, reporting data and filling out paperwork. The crush of clicks takes its toll on any organization, especially local school districts, which are set up to function in the classroom, not the board room.

Last year, the Legislature at one time floated bills that would have required 150 new data collections of K-12 schools. We are delighted to report a piece of legislation that will undue some of the paperwork burden created by other bills.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell quietly started a Paper Reduction Initiative in 2004 that is on track to reduce more than 37 percent of the information the state education department normally would require of K-12 schools throughout the state.

We're pleased that his efforts were doubled when Redwood City Democrat Ira Ruskin authored AB 110, which will cut out certain redundant data reporting requirements from a school district administration's to-do list.

The bill was signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last month and will begin rushing relief to all districts, especially smaller ones such as those in our area hamstrung by government reporting mandates and tighter budgets.

Despite Ruskin's bill, we're confident there's more paper shaving to be done. For example, O'Connell reported that districts in 2004 were reporting on student ethnicity 40 different ways. Talk about a waste of time and money dollars that should go into the classroom.

O'Connell estimated that it costs schools about $315 per piece of data. At that rate, doing the data dance for this federal agency and this state agency 40 times over can really add up. Worse, it takes dollars from the classroom. No wonder Johnny can't read.

Cutting government waste is a tall order especially in the so-called Information Age. We hope Ruskin, O'Connell and Schwarzenegger keep wielding their scalpels. Because sometimes, too much information is a bad thing.

Copyright 2005 -- Whittier Daily News