As newspapers across the country note Sunshine Week, here in Texas a bill has been filed that would, if not close, at least reduce a glaring loophole in the state's Freedom of Information law.

 Right now, when a school district board of trustees is looking for a superintendent, applicant names are kept secret until the "finalists" are named. What that means in the real world is the public doesn't know who the board plans to choose as superintendent until it's a done deal, because boards invariably only name one finalist.

 That means the public has no input in the process of hiring one of the most important positions in a community. That's not the case in other public high-profile positions, such as city manager, in which the names of all applicants are public record. It is, unfortunately, the case with university president applicants. Perhaps that issue will be taken up in a later session.

 Here's how it usually works. The superintendent position is posted, and a district gets a glut of candidates. Or it hires a search firm to come up with some promising applicants. Either way, at some point a small group of applicants survives the initial cut. Those folks are called in for a final round of interviews. Then the board meets in executive session and decides that Joe Blow is the best choice. Wham. He's the finalist. And the public has no say, no input, no idea, really, who the applicants were. That's not the case, for example, when a district hires a football coach. All the applicant names are public record.

 State Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, has filed a bill that, while not ideal, would at least actually define "finalist," which would be an improvement over current law. Right now, there really is no definition, which is why school boards are getting away with naming a lone finalist, even if they've interviewed multiple candidates more than once. His bill would define a finalist as anyone formally interviewed by the school board in the final round of interviews.

 That means boards would be obligated to disclose the names of applicants who make it to the final round. If Eltife's bill passes, we have no doubt some school boards will try to get around it by having one really, really final interview. But at least those of us who care about such things will have a formal definition and an avenue to question such subterfuge through the attorney general's Open Records Division.

 We support Eltife's bill as another ray of sunshine into open government. It's not perfect, but it's certainly better than the current process.