I'll keep this brief.
Education is very important me. Education has been ingrained in me I was the first to graduate in my family from university. I studied to become a public school teacher. I became a public school teacher early in my career. I taught during the COVID pandemic during my first year of becoming a public school teacher.
Public school education is important to me.
It makes me sad to see what Nebraska, my home state, has become regarding public education. Now that I live in California, I feel, indirectly, I am standing on the sidelines seeing how my home-sate wants to divert public funds or public taxes to fund private institutions. We live in a time where we can't properly fund, nor respect our own public schools across the nation. The de-funding public schools has been in the works as far back as the 1980s. Other efforts happened before this as well. This has been most predominantly since the Reagan Administration. The Reagan Administration slashed funding for public education across the board.
It's embarrassing we are trying to divert money from a great public school system from the State of Nebraska as it ranks one of the highest in the nation. I myself am a product of a Nebraska Public Education. We need to fix the issues happening, not make the problems worse.
Why should we fund private institutions? Why should we fund religious public institutions? Shouldn't we have separation of church and state? Public funds should stay in public schools. It's like they are trying to make a problem worse? Why keep under funding the public school system?
None of the private schools in my hometown, offered the subjects I was interested. I lived not too far from a Catholic school. They offered the "bare minimum." They didn't offer other world languages beyond Spanish. They didn't offer auto mechanics or other trades (attending trade school is just as important as university. This is discussion for another time.) What is the likelihood of them expanding their programs?
Many counties in Nebraska don't even have private institutions. How is the state going to give private institutions money to education students when the facilities don't exist? Here's a news report
Private education will increase inequality.
Public schools have been there for everyone. No matter your socioeconomic status. It was there for me. Public schools are there to help the most disadvantaged.
I agree, with the phrase, "Society is cheaping out on the kids" as written by Tracy Durnell, "We must fight the privatisation of school to provide racial equity, class mobility, and teaching reality instead of âalternative facts." We need to invest in students and not let them down.
How the State Currently get funding
Nebraska Public Media does a great job, visually of reporting how schools are funded in Nebraska.
Graphic from Nebraska Public Media: Nebraska relies heavily on property taxes to fund its public schools, compared to other states. (Graphic courtesy of OpenSky Policy Institute, uses 2019-2020 data
More state funding on the way for public schools in Nebraska
Adding funding to public schools is only one piece of the puzzle, we need to also address the systems, bureaucracies, institutions, and bad polices that exist, past and present.
I don't like to be cynical, I am scared what is coming. People need to become informed in what is happening in their community. People need to read the bills introduced in their respective level of government. We must continue to fight!
