Yesterday, I attended the public hearing on LB-630, which would allow charter schools under the name of "independent school districts" in Nebraska. It began at 1:30 and I gave my opponent testimony a little after 7:00...it was a long day. There were about 8-10 proponents for the bill, with a good percentage of them being from out of state. There were dozens of opponents to the bill, with all of them being Nebraskans.
Much of the proponent testimony focused on things in New York City, Chicago, and Washington D.C. Almost all of the opponent testimony focused on things in Nebraska. It was interesting to hear the displeasure with Senator Larson (the introducer of the bill) that the folks from O'Neill had as being part of his constituency.
It will be fascinating to see how much more aggressive the "school choice lobby" gets. They like to try and start arguments on social media and seem to take pure delight in running down public education. After sitting through hours and hours of testimony, I am still confused as to what the real advantages of charter schools are...I never heard an answer I could connect with. Some said it was that charter schools offer 3-4 adults that connect with kids daily. Some said it was that the school day is longer. Some said it was "high expectations." Some said it was differentiated and freedom of curriculum. I just shook my head because those are things we offer already, with the exception of curriculum state standards that we must adhere to. We have extended day and extended year programming, numerous caring adults that all of our students interact with, and high expectations and accountability. We differentiate instruction to various learning styles and levels of need.
I'm now more convinced than ever that we don't need additional school choice in Nebraska. We have plenty of "choice" already.
Below is the testimony I used.
As superintendent of York Public Schools, I am here to offer opposition testimony towards LB-630. Many others have, or will, offer detailed testimony about specific components of this bill. My brief comments will come from more of a high altitude fly-by.
• We already have numerous “choice options” in our great state without adding these “independent charter public schools.” According to data from the Nebraska Department of Education, we currently have…
o 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.
o 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'm opposed to taking funds away from public schools for choice/privatization efforts like charter schools, vouchers, and “independent public schools” as described in LB-630 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.
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.
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.
It’s really that simple to me. If they want to use state dollars, they need to follow state guidelines and be every bit as accountable as our public schools. Otherwise, if Senator Larson’s “independent public schools” create advantages for students, maybe all schools should be able to operate under the same parameters?
• It’s been interesting to see a few “school choice groups” pop up over the past few years.
o I’m thankful they have formed and become so aggressive and transparent about their disdain for Nebraska’s public schools. I think some of them refer to us as “the establishment.” I’ve had to block a few of them on Twitter for not being able to handle themselves in a mature fashion. They’ve helped to really unify public educators all across the state as well as within our communities. Not a week goes by that I don’t have a parent or patron contact me to see what they can do to help support our public schools and it is awesome!
The “school choice lobby” might say I’m just protecting “the establishment” or trying to save my cushy, easy job. They might say opponents of this bill are afraid of competition and accountability and that we need “change.”
Nothing could be farther from the truth. We’ve never been afraid of competition, accountability, or change. We compete every single day as it is. You think York doesn’t want to be better than Seward and Crete in everything we do or that they don’t want to be better than York? All I ask is if we’re going to have to compete with charter schools or independent public schools, let’s use the same rules.
Anyone in the world is invited to York Public Schools any day of the week. Come see what we’re about and what we do and how we do it every single day. Come unannounced or set up a visit. You’ll be impressed by the amazing things our teachers, support staff, and administrators are doing with 1,350 students every day. We’re doing it with fewer state dollars than ever before and a smaller staff too. Every Student. Every Day. We Find a Way!
School choice proponents might tell you they can save money and that if they take students away from public schools, the operational costs of public schools should decrease as well. Let’s say the “Platform Charter Independent Public School” opens up in York and takes 50 students away from us across the PreK-12th grade spectrum. We won’t be able to cut costs. We will still have the same number of bus routes, the same length of school day and same square footage to heat/cool our buildings, the same staff, same programming, etc. We could simply have 100 students per grade level instead of 104; this is not really conducive to cost savings.
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 in York and all throughout NEBRASKA and we’re committed to continued improvement and changes that meet the needs of our communities.
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.
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