LINCOLN — Nebraska lawmakers will be back Monday after two months with a dueling education hearing and forum on social and emotional learning.

The Education Committee will meet in State Capitol Room 1525 at 1:30 p.m. Monday to consider three studies offered by State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, the committee’s chair.

Legislative Resolutions , and will respectively look at parental involvement in education, the Nebraska Department of Education’s use of COVID-19 pandemic relief funds and social and emotional learning in K-12 schools.

Murman described these as information gathering and paths toward transparency to improve schools.

“I’m looking forward to the hearing, and hopefully we’ll come out after the hearing with better ideas, especially for the future going forward in education,” Murman said this week.

Monday will feature but no opportunity for public comment, which is not unusual for interim studies. The eight are:

• Brian Maher, the Nebraska education commissioner.
• Mike Pate, a Millard Public Schools board member.
• Lisa Wagner, president of the Central City Public School Board.
• Jackie Egan, representing NAACP Lincoln, Nebraskans for Peace, Let’s Talk Alliance and the Lincoln Education Collaboration.
• Kirk Penner, a State Board of Education member and former Aurora Public Schools board member (testifying in his personal capacity).
• Lisa Schonhoff, an English language learning educator with Bennington Public Schools.
• Sue Greenwald of the Protect Nebraska Children Coalition, a conservative political action committee that formed in 2021 to elect more conservative school board members.
• Lori Samuelson, a school psychologist in Hastings Public Schools.

Back to ‘basics’

Following years of backlash to critical race theory and comprehensive sex education, Monday’s hearing may feature a new concept for some: social and emotional learning.

The Nebraska Department of Education a definition from CASEL, the , that it is the process for children and adults to “understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships and make responsible decisions.”

The department also has its own for educators and leaders about the concept.

Murman said social and emotional learning has become a “buzzword,” and the hearing is a way to consider its role compared to the “basics,” such as reading, writing, math and STEM subjects.

Renee Jones, a Lincoln Public Schools teacher and the 2023 Nebraska Teacher of the Year, said the social and emotional well-being of students has been a “pressing concern,” exacerbated by challenges because of COVID-19.

“We simply cannot stick to teaching the ‘basics’ (math, reading, writing, history, etc) without recognizing that we are teaching humans, rather than information robots,” Jones said in an email.

Framework as ‘Trojan horse’

However, Penner has said social and emotional learning is the “Trojan horse” for all gender and critical race theory lessons being brought into education.

“3 of us on the board are on a mission to remove SEL and after ‘24 elections we should have the majority to have it removed,” Penner said in a .

The York County Republicans will host an event led by Greenwald, a former pediatrician, on Tuesday — ”S.E.L. Horrors” — where she is set to address how social and emotional learning has “infiltrated” every aspect of the school day.

The event will feature Greenwald’s interpretation of how social and emotional learning brings Marxist teachings, how moral relativism is replacing moral absolutes of religion, how sexualizing children traumatizes them and how the nuclear family is under attack.

Schonhoff, who is running for the State Boad of Education, said she has been a public school educator for more than 20 years and is a mom of four children attending public schools. She said she will share how the teaching “is being pushed into our schools at alarming speeds.”

‘The whole child has to be involved’

State Board of Education member Deb Neary of Omaha said many of the topics for Monday’s hearing are “born out of politics” and not problems in the state. were dominant in Neary’s re-election campaign last fall, including continued fallout after the board considered health education standards, including sex education, in 2021.

Neary said teachers and schools have been teaching social and emotional learning for decades.

“Teachers and schools have always talked about kindness and getting along and persistence,” Neary said. “Now they’ve been tagged with a name and there’s been a lot of misinformation around it and fear-mongering by politicians.”

Jones said she’d like the committee to bear in mind how each component of a student’s health impacts not just their academic performance but their “ability to navigate life beyond school.”

Murman said the hearing is not intended to diminish teachings of kindness and compassion but to help everyone involved with education understand and improve systems for students.

“If they [students] don’t have the right mental health or emotional health, it’s not the best learning environment either,” Murman said. “The whole child has to be involved in education.”

Additional resolutions

Murman’s two other resolutions are intended to dive deeper into efforts announced in the past year.

This spring he introduced — the “Parents’ Bill of Rights and Academic Transparency Act” — which has not advanced from the Education Committee. It would legislate that parents are the “foremost decision maker in every child’s life” and address parental involvement.

Lisa Wagner of Central City said she plans to detail how parental involvement is addressed in her city.

The final resolution comes nine months after Murman and four other senators called for an into the Nebraska Department of Education’s use of pandemic funds, centered on Launch Nebraska, a department website built to help schools reopening during the pandemic. 

The office of then-Gov. Pete Ricketts identified a New York University website link last June that, after two or three clicks, led to a document defending critical race theory and discussing racial justice. The link was removed prior to the senators’ news conference last October.

In , Murman also called for the department to remove links and resources to on its . The resources remain on the department’s website.

David Jespersen, a spokesman for the department, confirmed Murman’s office had reached out on some links, which were left up after staff decided they were appropriate.

Jespersen said there are still layers of vetting for anything that goes on the website.

Murman said he understands that only started in his role leading the State Department of Education and was not in charge when the pandemic funds were spent. He said it’s not about trying a “gotcha” but understanding what happened and what can be done moving forward.

Public forum down the hall

Just down the hall from the hearing will be a on social and emotional learning, led by State Sens. Machaela Cavanaugh, John Cavanaugh, Terrell McKinney, Carol Blood and Megan Hunt. The forum will start at 3 p.m. in Room 1510.

None of the five senators serve on the Education Committee, though McKinney served on it previously. He that anyone worried about what’s going on with should pay attention to the hearing. 

Machaela Cavanaugh said there was a “pretty large outcry” from the public about not being able to testify on Murman’s resolutions.

“I thought, well, if we’re only going to have one side of testimony here, and that doesn’t seem appropriate, we should find an avenue for the public to come in and share their thoughts,” she said.

The senators have the space for two hours, and Cavanaugh said they’ll try to accommodate anyone wishing to speak. It will run similarly to a normal hearing but won’t be recorded since it’s not official.

Murman said he will likely sit in on the forum and does not want to be confrontational.

“I just want to hear a broad range of ideas on all three of those LRs,” Murman said. “I’m sure there’ll be some beneficial testimony there.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. Follow Nebraska Examiner on and .

LINCOLN — Nebraska would no longer be the only state in the union that doesn’t provide some sort of “school choice” under a bill sent to final-round approval Thursday.

Legislative Bill 753 would permit state tax credits for donations to organizations that provide scholarships to kids to attend private and parochial schools. An estimated 5,000 students could switch to private schools, a legislative fiscal note says, and some senators predict it would lead to opening of more private and religious schools.

Initially, $25 million a year would be allowed for the credits, but the credits could eventually rise to $100 million a year. That would be more than the state spends a year on the State Patrol ($80 million a year) but about 10% of what Nebraska spends each year on state aid to K-12 public schools.

Advocates: Lets students have a choice

Advocates portrayed the bill as a way to allow students, particularly low-income kids, the opportunity to attend a private school if they aren’t thriving in a public institution.

They cited three inner-city Catholic schools in Omaha where almost all students qualify for free school lunches, where very few are Catholic and where 94% graduate from high school on time, compared to 78% in the Omaha Public Schools.

“This bill allows children to find the best school that fits their needs, even if they can’t afford tuition,” said State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, who has worked seven years to pass a school choice measure.

LB 753, which has the support of Gov. Jim Pillen, advanced from second-round debate on a 33-11 vote.

A legal ‘workaround’

Four hours of debate on the bill focused mainly on its fiscal impact on public school funding and whether the measure was a “workaround” to provide public funds to private schools.

Two attorneys opposed to the bill, Sens. George Dungan of Lincoln and John Cavanaugh of Omaha, questioned whether LB 753 violated a state constitutional prohibition on providing public aid to religious institutions.

Dungan cited a in February by Anthony Schutz of the University of Nebraska College of Law that questioned whether the bill was constitutional.

It’s not “cut and dried,” the senator said, adding that LB 753 appeared to be a “workaround” to make it constitutional.

But Linehan disputed that, citing Nebraska Supreme Court rulings that stated that it was OK to provide public funds to private schools.

Not an ‘appropriation’

She said LB 753 would not be an “appropriation” of state funds because it’s a tax credit.

“It’s not an appropriation if we never collect the money,” Linehan said.

The tax credits, under the bill, would not go directly to schools but to “scholarship granting organizations,” which would provide scholarships, estimated to average $5,000 a year, to students.

Critics said that providing tax credits to private schools would reduce funds for public schools and might stress the state budget eventually.

A , prepared earlier this month, stated that if 5,000 students, as projected, switch from public to private schools in the state’s 11 largest school districts, it would reduce state aid to those schools by nearly $12 million due to the loss of students. But if the switches happened in a broader group of districts, there would be a mix of school aid winners and losers, with a projected overall hike in school aid of $92,000.

North Dakota bill awaits signature

Nebraska and North Dakota have been the only states that didn’t provide some government funds for private/parochial education, but on Thursday, the North Dakota House gave final approval for a bill that provides funds for students to attend private schools.

The powerful state teachers union, the Nebraska State Education Association, has pledged to launch an initiative petition drive and put the issue before state voters if LB 753 passes.

After Thursday’s vote, NSEA President Jenni Benson said legislators aren’t listening to Nebraska voters because a majority of them oppose giving public tax dollars to private schools.

“Supporters of LB 753 claim it’s all sunshine and rainbows but the reality is LB 753 is a tax voucher scheme that will drain funding from our public schools and give it to unaccountable private schools that discriminate against kids,” Benson said in a press release.

Linehan, during Thursday’s debate, disputed that, saying that private schools must be approved by the state. Other supporters said the state offers all kinds of tax credits, and it could be argued that every one takes away funds from public schools.

A mayor fear of school choice opponents is that once the state opens the door to school choice, the program will grow and lead to approval of charter schools and vouchers — something supporters of LB 753 discount.

Two senators who represent North Omaha, Justin Wayne and Terrell McKinney, have supported the bill as giving children in their districts an option to public schools.

Another supporter of the bill, Omaha Sen. Brad von Gillern, said he expected that passage of the measure would aid in the construction of more private schools.

Von Gillern, who said he served as an elder at West Omaha’s Lifegate Church until October, said a coalition of groups, including Lifegate, is talking about opening a Christian high school in Omaha. The elementary school at Lifegate, he added, has a waiting list.

“There’s definitely a need,” von Gillern said.

The senator said he didn’t consider his former post with the church and voting on LB 753 as any kind of conflict of interest. The Opportunity Scholarships would go to students, not the church or school, von Gillern said, and the success of a Christian school would be determined by how well it educates students.

Lawmakers did adopt one amendment to LB 753 on Thursday that had been suggested by Sens. Jana Hughes of Seward and Barry DeKay of Niobrara.

DeVos group spent heavily

Hughes said she was concerned that funds given to scholarship granting organizations (SGOs) didn’t create a “tax shelter.” Her amendment requires that unused scholarship funds would be transferred to other SGOs or given to the state general fund.

DeKay said his part of the amendment would insure that there was a re-evaluation of the opportunity scholarship program after three years to ensure it was improving educational outcomes.

A similar opportunity scholarship bill failed to pass last year, but a national school choice group, , spent heavily last fall to get state senators elected who support the idea.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. Follow Nebraska Examiner on and .

LINCOLN — State Sen. Suzanne Geist of Lincoln said she realized last year she could not use an educational savings plan to support her grandchildren’s private K-12 tuition costs.

Congress approved an expansion in 2018 for NEST 529 plans under the College Savings Plan Program, but Nebraska is one of 10 states that lag in allowing the plans to also apply to K-12 private education.

, proposed by Geist, would adopt the federal standard and allow Nebraskans to receive tax deductions for their investments, which is allowed for higher education in the state.

“This is such a common sense request to ask our state to conform with the federal guidelines so grandparents like me can help their kids who cannot afford the choice that they want to make for their school to be able to make that choice,” Geist said.

Opponents said the bill would incentivize private education and families who send their kids to private schools, without support for private schools.

There is a limit of $10,000 per beneficiary per taxable year.

Geist added that because families would invest their private dollars, the bill would not impact public school funding.

Nebraskans can create 529 plans in states where the change is allowed if they want the investment for K-12 schools.

However, Nebraskans could not capitalize on other states’ tax deductions.

Preventing a ‘slip through the cracks’

Heather Schmidt, whose daughter has dyslexia, said she enrolled her child in a private school so she would receive additional support.

But Schmidt and her husband had to pay the out-of-pocket costs without additional support or tax benefits.

“Any extra savings for our future or our children’s future education is put on hold,” Schmidt told the Revenue Committee on Thursday. “Because nothing is more important than making sure our children are educated every step of the way. We won’t let any of them slip through the cracks.”

Elizabeth Davids, an educator, said K-12 education is essential because it’s the point where children form their “primary worldviews” and where they establish a foundation.

Davids said a child should go where they can be successful, and if they do not end up going to college, a 529 plan could be “worthless.”

‘Pass-through entity’

Connie Knoche, education policy director for the OpenSky Policy Institute, said the bill would create a new tax benefit and subsidize private K-12 plans.

“LB 165 will turn NEST into a pass-through entity so that families with children in private school can and will use these accounts to receive an immediate tax deduction,” Knoche said.

Dunixi Guereca, executive director for Stand For Schools, which advocates for public schools and public school funding, said the bill could exclusively benefit already wealthy families.

Geist told the committee there are better ways to “make a buck” than investing in 529 plans for the tax deduction.

Tonack said there could be costs for families attending public schools, too, such as for industrial or performing arts.

She added that 529 accounts do extend to college apprenticeships or student loan debt repayments. She encouraged the committee to also extend expansion to families of K-12 students.

“It should make the pot grow just a little bit,” Tonack said.

Geist said she is working on an amendment that would conform to federal language related to  allowing the 529 expansion to apply to public schools.

When asked, Tonack said that would make the NSEA neutral on Geist’s bill; Guereca said Stand For Schools would still be opposed.

‘Very skeptical’ of revenue decrease

A fiscal note from the Nebraska Department of Revenue through the next four fiscal years estimates the bill could lead to revenue decreases:

FY 2023-24: $2,539,000FY 2024-25: $5,669,000FY 2025-26: $7,921,000FY 2026-27: $7,829,000

State Treasurer John Murante said, however, he’s “very skeptical” about the estimates.

They assume that 50% of all eligible Nebraska families would have a 529 account next year and that the program would grow in future years.

Murante said such revenue decreases have not occurred in the states that adopted the federal standard and contended the department’s estimates were overstated.

Jay Steinacher, who oversees the 529 savings plans offered through Union Bank and Trust, said Nebraska has more than 300,000 accounts, which total more than $6 billion.

That places Nebraska 18th in the country for total assets, Steinacher said, even though Nebraska is 37th in population.

He said this can be attributed to a strong investment lineup, low costs and a competitive plan structure, but he said momentum slows when there is a limitation on how accounts may be used in the state.

“If they’ve been saving for their kids’ education, and they want to use their own money to pay for K-12 tuition, from our point of view, that’s their business,” Murante said.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. Follow Nebraska Examiner on and .

Nebraska voters didn’t get a chance to size up the major candidates to replace Gov. Pete Ricketts on the debate stage this year.

Republican nominee Jim Pillen declined to debate, describing the process as political theater. His Democratic opponent, State Sen. Carol Blood, criticized the move.

So the Nebraska Examiner interviewed both candidates last week about several key issues. We’ll present these in a question-and-answer format over the next few days. Today’s topics are K-12 education and property taxes. Their answers were edited for brevity and clarity.

Q: What, if anything, needs fixing in Nebraska’s K-12 education system, and what would you do to fix it? 

Pillen: Nebraskans agree that our future’s our kids. And we can never, ever, ever give up our kids, whether it’s a teacher, it’s a coach, no matter what the circumstances are. It takes a village to raise our kids. We can never give up on a kid. They are our future. And yet, the state of Nebraska has. We’ve quit on the kids in 158 of the 244 school districts (in state aid to education formula funding, which is meant to equalize aid to schools). When Nebraskans understand that, they gasp.

It’s unacceptable. It’s not Nebraska. It’s not fair. That has to be changed. And it has to be done to have the money follow the student. Then it’s all local. Our schools are locally controlled. Each school district needs to figure out how they adjust or overcome that, or how they have less property taxes because of that change.

Blood: I believe in a PK (pre-kindergarten) through 14 (postsecondary) education. Nebraska can do universal child care. We know that anything prior to kindergarten is really important because we make sure that we give kids a good start in life when it comes to education. It’s really an opportunity for us to catch red flags, when it comes to things like the cycle of violence, the cycle of poverty. It gives us an opportunity to lift up those families and get them help. We have put tens of millions of dollars into the infrastructure of our community colleges. We can allow all of our high school seniors the opportunity to get up to a two-year degree. … It can be in the trades. It can be in ag. It can be in insurance. It can be in IT, health care. But what’s awesome about it is that they can walk out of there with no college debt.

The TEEOSA (state aid to schools formula) is antiquated. It doesn’t work. We do know that two-thirds of schools don’t get state aid, and then that means that they depend on the wealthiest landowners in their districts. And that’s not fair and equitable. So when we go to fix the school aid issue, the first thing we have to know is that we have to fully fund all of our schools, especially if we want to lower property taxes.

Q: How would you fund those changes? 

Pillen: TEEOSA has had so many special interests added on for 35 or 40 years, whatever it’s been, and it’s so complicated that you can’t find anybody who even understands it. So it’s just got to be bone dry, common-sense simple that Nebraskans can always understand. I’m not talking about defunding. I’m talking about changing the funding. So let’s just keep it simple math. A billion dollars of state funds divided by the number of students, and the funding follows a student to the school district. So it’s per student funding, not per district funding.

Blood: It’s not going to be one thing … it’s going to be multiple things. I think we really missed an opportunity with Senator (Lynne) Walz’s bill, a bill that would’ve lowered everybody’s property taxes, would have fully funded … all of our schools in Nebraska, and it would’ve been a one penny difference in your sales tax. Nobody likes to be taxed, but when you compare it to the balance of what everybody would have saved property-tax wise … I think the public would have been in favor of it. I also have been looking at our (state) budget, and we … have money that we don’t use wisely that we can shift. Then it’s going to be a matter of what are we willing to agree upon.

Q: Where do you stand on charter schools and why?

Pillen: I’m a big-time believer in competition. When you have free market competition, it brings the best out of the human spirit. And I’m a believer that you shouldn’t have to be wealthy to be able to go to a school. Public school systems are captive markets. So if you live in a school that is underperforming on achievement and you have no other choice for a child, I believe that’s wrong. I believe you should have an option, and that’s why I support charter schools.

Blood: I believe in public dollars for public schools with no exceptions. If you are interested in school choice, the nice thing about Nebraska is that you truly do have school choice. If you don’t like the school system you’re in, you have the ability to go to another school system. I think it’s interesting that some of the same people that are pushing for charter schools and for vouchers are the same ones that are trying to gut our public schools. And I wonder when I see this if they’re purposely trying to gut our public schools and make our teachers the villains so they can promote their own messaging.

Q: What role, if any, should the governor play in K-12 education in Nebraska, and how does that fit with the traditional roles of the State Board of Education and local school boards?

Pillen: It can be challenging to find the truth. The facts are really simple. If you go look at state statutes, the state … Board of Education makes recommendations. They have no statutory authority. They may be responsible for distributing some federal funding, but they have no statutory authority. So the authority rests again in local government with our local school boards. I’m a believer that we need to make sure all of our school boards understand that it is their say if a recommendation comes down that is not appropriate for your local school board. You say, “Sorry, state. We don’t care what you think. This is what’s best for our community and our school.”

Blood: I think as a leader in the executive branch as governor, if you want to lead the state, you have to lead by playing a role in education. Now there’s a difference between playing a role in it and demonizing it. I think the governor has to play a role because we are a very educated state. We have to play a role, but we have to be careful not to demonize when we don’t agree with something, and I do think it’s really unfortunate that our executive branch has been trying to take away funds. It says in our State Constitution … we’re going to provide education for the children of Nebraska.

Q: What is your plan to address property taxes at the state level? How would people pay for local services like education and public safety that property taxes fund?

Pillen: I think there are a couple or three approaches. One is that we just absolutely have to decrease spending and run government like a business and make sure that a whole lot of initiatives that were put in with a good step forward that doesn’t work, then we stop doing it if they’re not creating value. We need to just focus on what Nebraskans need, not things that would be nice. So I think we can make government certainly more efficient. … And then the other is I believe that our property taxes are too high. … Property tax has to be solved because it’s so out of whack. It is affecting every Nebraskan, whether you own property or not, because it’s on your rent.

It’s a state issue and it’s a local issue. We have to make sure local governments behave responsibly and become more efficient, as well. You have to run county government differently. Not every road needs to be gravel. Not everything that we used to do is a service needed. Quit spending money and tighten up in county government so we can have an impact. If our community is growing and we need another school … our high-performing kids waste their senior year in high school. Let’s get these kids into college sooner so we don’t keep spending money on more buildings and start doing business differently.

Lastly would be how property is appraised. It is just totally wrong. Let’s just pick a county that’s growing. All of a sudden, somebody’s farm ground is appraised at $30,000 an acre, which is not farmland value. Then they’re getting appraised for property tax that … the land can’t produce, much less make a living off the investment on that. We need to change that and work hard with the Unicameral on an income-based approach. That, then again, forces all of us to be running government like a business.

Blood: We’ve come up with a lot of legislation to lower property taxes, and ultimately, nobody’s property taxes are lower. Until we stop unfunded and underfunded (state) mandates and fully fund our schools, we will never have true property tax relief. We know when Ben Nelson was governor, there were two reports done — one for schools and one for counties. It said the underlying cause of property taxes being high is these mandates, and they need to be stopped.

During the last recession … they had a bill that took away aid to local government, which is kind of when our property taxes really started to skyrocket. That aid had always balanced the property tax issue, kind of balanced the way things worked, because they knew we were handing down mandates … we made sure it’s not a burden. When they took that away, it became a bigger burden. We limit the tools they can use to pay for these things. Look at our smaller counties, like Johnson County. When they have an inmate die in their state prison (at Tecumseh), they have to pay for the autopsy and grand jury investigation. It isn’t that we don’t want those services, it’s that we don’t get the choice on how we pay for them. I had that constitutional amendment.

I really believe voters should have gotten to choose whether we should be able to pass a bill without showing how we’re going to pay for it first. That’s kind of our jobs. We can pass good laws without having to pass down the cost. … We put the burden on the counties. Eventually, they get to a breaking point where they have to pay for it. They pay for it by raising our property taxes. … We’ve got to start there, because no matter what legislation we pass, as long as we keep handing down those mandates and we don’t allow people to vote on whether we should do it, it’s never going to change.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. Follow Nebraska Examiner on and .