Educational Progress in Nebraska

What SHOULD it look like?

by Alice Roberts

Editors note: Everyone needs a friend like my guest author, Alice. She is as non-ideological as a person can be, and is able to “translate” the language of the left to the right, and vise versa. She readily identifies where the two sides have common ground. She feels strongly that neither side is being served well by our current public school system in Nebraska. In her words: “All family and cultural values that don’t align with the teacher’s union interests are being trampled, right and left. It is a broken and archaic system. It is time to defund the system and start funding students.”

For those not familiar with the petition of the Nebraska State Education Association, with an $800,000 assist from the National Education Association, to overturn the first tiny glimpse of school choice in Nebraska, you can read about it HERE, and in the archives of this newsletter.

I asked my friend to write down her thoughts, and so she did. What follows is her essay.

Everyone Loses in the Culture War

It is an undisputed consensus that school board races are being increasingly run based upon the culture wars. Parents who feel their family’s values being threatened are running for school board to “fix it,” and voters are increasingly being forced to choose a side.

The values of individual families vary so widely these days that a secular belief system forced upon all Americans has definitely seen its time. Do the public education institutions respect the colorful fabric of diversity that is America? There is lip service paid to celebrating cultural diversity and heritage, but the definition of “diversity” and the relative value of the “heritage” is being interpreted narrowly. Teacher-led activism is training kids to challenge traditional family values. As this continues, ever fewer parents would say their culture is respected by the public school.

Curriculum that encourages children to question their very identity is reckless, and is clearly an effort to carve a child away from their family. Proficiency in essential learning skills must be firmly established before children can fairly explore such a monumental question.

Currently, school boards, administrators, and teachers are majority progressive. To those people I ask: If a school board full of social conservatives would create an earthquake of opposition from those holding your progressive views, then HOW can anyone in good conscience continue to force everyone’s children into the same “culture” in the same educational institution?

Any school board candidate who is running with the intention of mandating a set of values, no matter what those values are, is imposing on the rights of parents to DIRECT the education and upbringing of their children.

The fact that culture wars are driving school board elections is proof positive that the only acceptable answer to preserve liberty in America is universal school choice.

Continuing to Fund Failure

Are Nebraska public schools as great as the anti-school choice advocates claim they are? According to the Omaha World Herald, “The NAEP achievement gaps between white and Black students in Nebraska in both math and reading were wider than the national average for both fourth and eighth grades.” So are the gaps between white and Hispanic students. The reason, according to experts, for this gap is poverty. If that is the case, then why is the NSEA fighting so hard to deny children living in poverty a chance to thrive in an alternate educational environment? Why are children being mandated to attend schools that don’t meet their needs simply because of their financial circumstances?

Are Nebraska’s public schools providing a workforce to keep Nebraska’s economy thriving? There is a lot of chatter around Career and Technical Education (CTE) right now, so one could conclude that we are facing a skilled trade shortage.

The Educational elite seem to think we can start pushing these jobs to students while still in high school. That is a worthy goal, however, one might challenge them to actually look at a trades code book. Strong reading, comprehension and math skills are very necessary to succeed in a trade. With only 31% of Nebraska eighth graders proficient in math, a workforce shortage is likely.

Agriculture is the cornerstone of Nebraska’s economy. Yet, generic public K-12 schools curriculum does not provide education to teach students about Nebraska agriculture, nor develop interests that could lead to future innovations.

Instead, NEA-driven pedagogy teaches the theory that cattle are harming the environment. Without a strong proficiency in basic skills, an understanding of the industry and how it contributes to our local economy, how are students expected to develop respect for, rather than a disdain of ranching? What of the farming and ranching families? How is scapegoating them going to contribute to Nebraska’s future?
The promise of America is the freedom to practice your religion without a consequence from the secular state. So many religious practices run up against the hard and fast “butts in seats“ school calendar. Families are having to choose between observing their religious and cultural traditions, or adhering to the time mandated to be in school. To be clear, no one can suffer a legal consequence for missing school because of a religious reason. There are, however, academic consequences.

The Unions Own the Schools

This legislative session, Nebraskans were promised property tax relief, funding for special education, and more equitable state support for rural schools. Parents were given hope that there would be opportunities for their children who are not thriving in public schools to have a supported choice. After years of debate and legislative maneuvering, they got it.

In spite of this comprehensive education package full of compromises, passed by the legislature with bi-partisan approval, and signed into law by the Governor, the teachers union (NSEA) won’t even allow a few children living in poverty the opportunity to try something else when they have been systematically failed for decades.

The teachers union is fine with the nearly billion dollars in increased school funding, but that 25 million dollar Opportunity Scholarship does not serve their interest. Their efforts to repeal the only school choice option in the state, demonstrates the NSEA belief that they know what’s best for an individual child’s education and they will not compromise. That belief isn’t supported by the United States Constitution, as interpreted in a myriad of Supreme Court decisions which are collectively called the Parental Rights Doctrine.

ParentalRightsFoundation.org provides these examples:

The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only. The child is not the mere creature of the State. - Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925)

The values of parental direction of the religious upbringing and education of their children in their early and formative years have a high place in our society. This primary role of the parents in the upbringing of their children is now established beyond debate as an enduring American tradition. - Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972)

The statist notion that governmental power should supersede parental authority in all cases because some parents abuse and neglect children is repugnant to American tradition. - Parham v. J. R., 442 U.S. 584 (1979)

In a long line of cases, we have held that, in addition to the specific freedoms protected by the Bill of Rights, the "liberty" specially protected by the Due Process Clause includes the rights . . . to direct the education and upbringing of one's children. - Washington v. Glucksburg, 521 U.S. 702 (1997)

In light of this extensive precedent, it cannot now be doubted that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children. - Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000)

It’s Time to Aim Higher

The archaic public K-12 school model has seen its day, and now it is time to move forward and embrace education without barriers. As teachers unions bring more and more activism into public K-12 schools, even prioritizing it over academic success, parents are demanding a better choice for their children and economic barriers must be removed. Allowing parents to choose their children’s education based upon what is important to them as a family, is not only possible, but is wholly supported by our laws and traditions as a nation.

Those loyal to the teachers unions have made it clear that they will do anything to maintain their power, money and control. They continue to fund and facilitate a rigid system that serves the convenience of the adults over the wellness of the children. Their hubris is stepping all over the rights of families protected by the 14th amendment of the United States Constitution.

The Legislature and Governor should continue to pass legislation that allows even more educational freedom for Nebraska families. Arizona and Iowa provide the examples. If anything was learned from this episode of the NSEA’s out-of-proportion response to a small Opportunity Scholarship bill, it’s that the educational freedom proponents did not aim high enough. If we are going to put school choice on the ballot, why not full school choice?

America is diverse, and our educational options are not. Economic realities currently limit most families in Nebraska to the public school option, even if parochial or private schools are available in their communities. Regardless of one’s political or religious views, it is not possible for the current system to honor them. Blaming our neighbors will not make it better. It’s time for a new educational model which will give all families fair and equitable access to exercise their Constitutional rights.

The author is a Nebraska wife and mother with children who attend public school.