Governor’s Budget Proposal Does Little to Restore Cuts to K-12 Schools
The budget proposal outlined by the governor today would do little to help schools make up for deep cuts experienced in recent years, and provides less funding than current law already requires. The portion of Nebraska’s economy being invested in state aid to schools is lower now than it has been in fifteen years, and the governor’s proposal would essentially maintain this historically low level of investment (first graph below). In unadjusted dollar amounts, the proposal barely returns state aid in the 2014-15 school year to the amount schools were receiving five years before in 2009-10 (second graph below). Reduced state aid forces our local schools to choose between cuts in the classroom and higher property taxes.
