School boards across San Jose have a serious transparency problem: of the 24 publicly elected school boards that serve citizens of San Jose, only four video-record and post their meetings online. The self-proclaimed “Capital of Silicon Valley” can do better. This is why we launched Livestream San Jose, a movement to close this gap by the end of 2015.

Transparency is vital for healthy local politics. Citizens who want to make a difference will find it difficult to begin without a sense of the issues and personalities involved. Without the ability to observe the actions of our representatives, voters cannot intelligently choose between candidates or provide their input to the important decisions elected officials make.

Moreover, without the accountability that transparency brings, good public servants are unrecognized and bad ones are protected. In short, openness and accessibility are essentially tied to democracy.

Today, many members of our community are unintentionally excluded from the political processes that govern their lives and the lives of their children.

Parents, educators and students often find that their busy schedules conflict with the opportunity to attend school board meetings. Most people would like to be well-informed and part of the process, but other demands on their time make attending meetings impossible. As a result, the communal understanding of education policy degrades.

It is not that school boards want their proceedings to be obscure; their meetings are open to the public. But the status quo pits a grasp of local government against the demands of ordinary life.

This is entirely unnecessary in the digital age, and especially in the heart of Silicon Valley. Video recording technology can allow anyone, anywhere, to see and hear how decisions are being made in real time. Many local city councils have made the leap, and so have Alum Rock Union, Campbell Union and Fremont Union school districts as well as the Santa Clara County Board of Education. It’s time all boards join them.

Livestreaming public meetings only has upsides. Making our meetings accessible on the internet would encourage political participation and keep stakeholders informed. It would provide a record of the accomplishments and allow us to keep every board member accountable. Furthermore, livestreaming is extremely low-cost. Setting up a livestream for every school board in San Jose would be cheap, easy and could be done by the end of 2015.

Opponents of transparency argue that openness inhibits frank discussion. Nothing could be further from the truth. Transparency ensures that representatives discuss what their constituents desire. If board members are generally advancing the interests of their community, which we fully believe they are, then a video record will only serve to publicize their good work.

Additionally, livestreaming is merely the logical development of public board meetings. Applying new technology to better accomplish goals should be a constant goal of government.

As millennials, we are eager to see how government can better itself through the use of technology. Livestreaming school board meetings is an obvious and important step. We hope that boards across San Jose will take it.

If you share our vision, then we urge you to consider getting involved in our cause. We have designed a simple, quick and effective method to show your support on our website. If you would like to learn more or participate, please visit livestreamSJ.com.

Kalen Gallagher is a trustee in the Campbell Union High School District (West San Jose, Cambrian and Campbell), and Christian McGuire are Alison Sir are summer interns working on Livestream San Jose. All live in San Jose. They wrote this for this newspaper.