School Choice and the Battle in Nebraska
Testimony regarding LB 177, My Student, My Choice Act
by Sue Greenwald MD
Tuesday March 21, the Nebraska Legislative Education Committee will hear public testimony for LB 177, The My Student, My Choice Act. Here is my testimony:
In Sept of 2019, the Nebraska Board of Education, under the direction of the Nebraska Dept of Education voted to make Social Justice the primary goal of all education in Nebraska. Not reading or science, social justice.
In a June 2020 post to the NDE website, Commissioner Blomstedt re-iterated the goals for the department and the first 2 things he listed were social justice and anti-racism. The standards and recommended rescources released by the Dept since have reflected that goal, and the dismal performance of our schools lately in the areas of math, science and reading reflect those prioities.
Those policies remain in place 4 years later. The Nebr. Dept. of Education oversees all schools in Nebraska, including the private and home schools. But their reach is felt most acutely in the public schools. Parents and teachers see our public schools riding a pathway to extinction as more and more families are opting out of the toxic ideology that has taken them over. The schools are all in with Social Emotional Learning which is pervasive training in Neo-Marxism. They are gathering data on students for outside agencies that want to give our kids a social credit score. They are all in with gender ideology, even convincing students to transgender behind their parents' backs. Yes, in the suburbs, in Nebraska.
For this legislative session, it was a group of parents and teachers who, along with Senator Murman, crafted a Parents Bill of Rights in an attempt to save the Nebraska education system from itself. That was LB 374 which has died in this committee.
The message to parents and teachers is clear: Nebraska does not care what we think, does not want us to know what the schools are doing, and does not believe that parents should control the upbringing and education of their own children. Teachers are quitting in droves, many of them because they refuse to enforce this policy. Parents are actively looking for alternatives.
The biggest hurdle for parents is cost. To remove their children from the schools which they consider a toxic environment, they would in essence be paying twice for education. Once through their property taxes and again through tuition. The cost is prohibitive for most families. We can't yet say that most Nebraskans are trapped in failing schools because there are great people, teachers and administrators, keeping the ideological excesses in check as best they can. They are trying to maintain the quality that they know is possible, and they feel like they are fighting an uphill battle.
However, the needle is moving rapidly in the wrong direction. Witness the truth recently exposed at Westside Schools. Nebraskans need alternatives and they need them now. If the state legislature is blind to this fact, then the people will become less and less tolerant of property taxes. No matter what, parents will find a way to educate their children in an environment where a Parent's Bill of Rights is not considered too radical pass out of committee.
The Author is a retired Pediatrician and a co-founder of the Protect Nebraska Children Coalition