Nebraskans view funding of public education justifiably as a long-term investment in the state’s future. A strong K-12 education system not only expands economic opportunities for all, it helps strengthen the overall economy. Many of the policy choices made by our state’s lawmakers have major ramifications for our state’s vital investments in public education.
A bill being heard in the Education Committee today, LB 518, would help address educational achievement gaps throughout the state by targeting increased state funding to students who may need extra support. [...]
A few bills proposed by the state Legislature this session would change how the state helps school districts manage the costs of providing special education services to students, whose needs can be [...]
It’s tax season, and many of us are trying to figure out what we owe. The Nebraska Legislature is also looking into that question. A few bills introduced in the Legislature – [...]
The governor’s proposed education finance plan, LB 583, and the three bills containing the governor’s budget priorities, LBs 813, 814 and 818, had hearings recently, while a couple other education and revenue bills will be heard in committee [...]
Efforts to divert state dollars to private schools often start small but balloon in costs and consequences, panelists from Arizona, Wisconsin and Indiana said during a recent OpenSky webinar. The cost of [...]
The cost of high-profile K-12 finance and tax packages introduced this week would entirely consume the projected $1.9 billion that lawmakers have to enact new legislation in the current two-year budget cycle and then [...]
There is talk of transforming Nebraska’s K-12 education funding into a system that provides aid to schools on a per-student basis. Assuming the $1.07 billion in state school aid – including the [...]
The Legislature’s floor debate agenda continues to be filled with major fiscal policy issues this week, including school revenue caps, a K-12 funding increase and income tax cuts. Meanwhile, the week’s hearing [...]
The school revenue cap in LB 986 – a bill being debated by the Legislature – would cause significant revenue losses for large school districts with the highest needs, such as high percentages of [...]
This week begins with a bill to cap school district revenue growth on the Legislature’s agenda and will end with a Revenue Committee hearing on a measure to replace all state and local taxes [...]