K-12 education tops Omaha Young Professionals’ budget priorities
A collective gasp.
That was the sound we were met with as we displayed a PowerPoint slide to about 100 Omaha-area Young Professionals that showed how K-12 education in Nebraska had been cut by more than $100 million in the past few years.
Just moments earlier, we had asked the audience — attendees of the recent Greater Omaha Young Professionals Summit – to create their own version of the Nebraska state budget.
Armed with electronic voting devices, the YPs ranked K-12 education as their top priority item, followed by health and human services – presently the top priority in the actual Nebraska Budget.
“How is it that we just told you K-12 education is so important to us and yet it gets cut so much?” one participant asked.
Great question, we responded.
“That shows why it is so important for you to be involved in the legislative process and to make your voices heard,” said Renee Fry, our executive director.
Higher education and public safety tied as the third priority item among the young professionals followed by humanities.
In another question, we asked which of the following factors would be most likely to cause the Young Professionals to leave Nebraska:
- Family;
- Work;
- Quality of life;
- Weather;
- Taxes; and
- Other.
The young professions ranked work, quality of life and weather as the top three reasons they would leave, followed by family, other and then taxes.
Thirteen percent of those surveyed said they would never leave the state.
“K-12 education obviously is very important to these young professionals,” Fry said. “Overall, it was very interesting to hear what this vital segment of our community felt was important in terms of state budget priorities.”