School Choice

School Choice is Alive and Well in Nebraska…Privatization of Education is NOT

January 22-28 is “National School Choice Week” and I’m very proud of all the school choices we already offer in Nebraska. According to data from the Nebraska Department of Education, we currently have…
• 22,148 students using their “option enrollment choice” throughout the state. Within YPS, we have students from seven school districts that use their option in or out choice with us. We currently have about 30 more students that option in as opposed to optioning out. By the way, many states don’t offer option enrollment options like we do here in the Cornhusker state.
• 37,762 students using their “non-public school choice” with an estimated 8,290 of them being “home-schooled.” YPS has about 34 home-schooled students living within our boundaries and we have a tremendous relationship with Emmanuel-Faith Lutheran and St. Joseph’s Catholic as we help provide them with many services and support for the important work they do in the parochial school sector.

I’ve always been for “choice” but can never see being for “privatization” where individuals, donors, investment groups, politicians, and others try to turn education into a “for profit” business venture using state dollars for charter schools, vouchers, and opportunity scholarships. What worries me about “school choice” groups are that some of them don’t tell you they’re really about “privatization,” exclusion of others, and making a profit; while shouldering zero accountability to local taxpayers.

Some of these groups try to tell you public schools over-spend and under-deliver but that’s not the case here in Nebraska, although that is sadly true in some states across our nation.
• Nebraska has one of the highest graduation rates in the country at 89%. York’s rate is around 93%.
• Nebraska students excel on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments on an annual basis and are currently in the top 12 states in all categories. York students excel on local, state, and national assessments.
• Nebraska students have the highest average ACT score in the nation for the 15+ states that have 80% or more of their students taking it. York’s average is even higher than our state average.

I'm opposed to taking funds away from public schools for choice/privatization efforts like charter schools, vouchers, and opportunity scholarships. Nebraska already ranks 49th in the nation for the percentage of its state budget that gets allocated to K-12 education. We already have way too much of an over-reliance on local property taxes to fund the schools we currently have.

I think it would be a tremendous mistake to offer up money from the limited state budget we have to enhance privatization/choice options like charter schools with vouchers and opportunity scholarships that don’t have the same accountability that public schools have to follow. They don’t have to have publicly elected boards, don’t have to have annual audits, don’t have to adhere to open meeting laws, manage spending lids, and they get to pick and choose which students they serve, while public schools gladly welcome one and all.

Choice/Privatization options don’t have to adhere to state mandated assessment guidelines. They don’t have any of the transparency or accountability your public schools do. They get to take who they want, do what they want, and spend state money while likely damaging the public school system through even less funding.

It’s really that simple to me. If they want to use state dollars, they need to follow state guidelines like public schools do. Otherwise, “choice” really means specialized schools and voucher programs “choosing” who they will serve, how they will serve them, while not being held accountable to the public.

This isn’t Florida where I’m from. This isn’t Detroit or Atlanta or Washington, D.C. We’re not Los Angeles or Chicago or New York City either. Our schools are working here in York and all throughout NEBRASKA. Let’s focus on supporting the choices we already have here with outstanding parochial and non-public schools, home school options, and public school option enrollment.

Education should not be for sale in Nebraska.