Have you wondered how much your city manager is paid? Are you curious about how many disciplinary actions were taken this year at the school your child will attend for the first time next fall? Do you know about tools you can use – Freedom of Information Act and the North Carolina Open Records Law – to get information about how, what and why your government does what it does?

How you – the ordinary citizen – can go about getting that information and much more will be revealed this week in a five-day, eight-story series in The High Point Enterprise.

The week of March 14-20 is Sunshine Week, a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public’s right to know. Sunshine Week is led by the American Society of News Editors and is funded primarily by a challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation of Miami.

Although spearheaded by journalists, Sunshine Week is about the public’s right to know what its government is doing, and why. Sunshine Week seeks to enlighten and empower people to play an active role in their government at all levels and to give them access to information that makes their lives better and their communities stronger.

Take time to read the Sunshine Week 2010 stories and educate yourself about getting access to information you want and need.

Open meetings and open records laws haven’t been adopted just to serve the media. They are there for you to use. Allow this series to remind you that if you don’t use it, you can lose it.