A proposal to send more state aid to smaller, rural school districts that don’t get much now fell short in the Legislature Tuesday.
There are 244 school districts in Nebraska, but because of how the school funding formula works, only 84 of them – about one-third – get money from the largest state school aid program, called “equalization aid.”
That aid is calculated by taking schools’ needs and subtracting the amount available from local property taxes. That puts a lot of pressure on local property taxpayers, particularly farmers and ranchers who may have lots of property, but not necessarily high incomes.
Sen. Curt Friesen proposed to address that by creating a new form of state aid. Under his bill, the aid would go to school districts where property taxes are the source of funding for more than 70 percent of the districts’ needs.
Friesen estimated that would cost $65 million in its first year, compared to the $1 billion a year disbursed under the current formula. And he complained that the larger school districts opposed his plan.
“I don’t see the schools weighing in the schools when we do our different tax cuts, when we created the ImagiNE Act, when we give away revenue in other forms, the schools are silent. But when we want to help kids in rural Nebraska, when we care about those kids, then we don’t seem to care as much,” Friesen said.
Sen. Bruce Bostelman echoed that theme, quoting Han Solo from Star Wars, warning about beings that can rip opponents’ arms from their sockets.
“It’s not wise to upset a Wookiee. I think that ‘Wookiee’ here is our big schools. The 84 (districts) that are getting the funds, and the 160 that’s not. When are we going to start making a difference?” Bostelman asked.
And Friesen said problems of poverty are not limited to urban areas.
“I was at least surprised at the number of free- and reduced-lunch kids in school, and the poverty that is out there in rural Nebraska and it equals that of some urban areas,” he said.
In Friesen’s district, in small towns and the countryside surrounding and stretching to the north of Grand Island, more than one-third of all students receive free or reduced-price school lunches because of their family income levels.
Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, opposing the bill, said that was no surprise. She mentioned the percentage of newborns covered by the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program for low-income families.
“We have low-income kids clear across the state. I think it’s over 40 percent of the children born in the state are born on CHIP. So it’s a little surprising that we have people that we don’t know we have poor kids everywhere. We do. And we do need to fix the school formula. But not by little nicks and picks. We need to do the whole thing and the state needs to step up and do more of the job to take and take it off the back of the property taxpayer,” Linehan said.
Sen Tom Briese said Friesen’s proposal would help with rural property taxes.
“We do have a property tax crisis in this state, and it’s borne of our failure to properly fund local government and K-12 education at the state level. And this bill, this amendment, goes straight to the heart of the matter. It injects more state dollars into unequalized districts, and this is the kind of education funding reforms that those of us from rural Nebraska have been talking about for years,” Briese said.
Sen. Mike Groene said giving out more state aid without spending caps would not lower property taxes.
“This is not fixing anything. This is pumping more money into Main Street – state tax dollars. But it does not lower property taxes,” Groene said.
The vote on the bill was 23 in favor, 12 opposed. With 25 votes needed, the bill failed to advance.
Late Tuesday afternoon, senators gave first round approval to spending $25 million in state funds, and possibly $75 million in federal funds, to help finish building projects by nonprofits, ranging from arts organizations to sports complexes, that were interrupted by the pandemic. The vote on that proposal was 26-11.
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May 05, 2021 at 06:03AM
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Bid for more aid to rural schools falls short | netnebraska.org - NET Nebraska
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