Education bills in the Legislature

One of the committees that I’ve served on for the past four years is the Education Committee. In this legislative session the Education Committee has heard a multitude of bills addressing a wide variety of topics. This week I would like to discuss several bills that I anticipate will be debated in the remaining days of this year’s session.

LB 1218 has been designated as a priority bill by the Education Committee and has been advanced by a unanimous vote to General File. This bill (with the committee amendment) is intended to address Nebraska’s teacher workforce shortage by accomplishing the following:

Passing a statewide examination related to basic skills competency as an entrance requirement to a post-secondary education institution would no longer be required. Testimony showed that this test had become a barrier for many students, has not been linked to teaching effectiveness, and was an unnecessary expense for students.

The State Board of Education requires applicants to pass an exam (the “Praxis” core exam) before receiving an entry-level teaching certificate or permit. This bill would allow teaching candidates to retake portions of the exam if they need to or to demonstrate their proficiency through college coursework.

Another way to address the teacher workforce shortage is addressed in this bill by allowing teachers wishing to relocate to Nebraska to demonstrate their proficiency by their experience as an educator in another state rather than taking a single test such as the Praxis exam.

LB1218 also would provide $1,000 in loan forgiveness to student teachers under the “Attracting Excellence to Teaching Program”. An individual would be required to provide service for a full academic semester within an accredited or approved public or private school and meet certain requirements to qualify.

Adopts the “Teach in Nebraska Today Act” which provides for student loan repayment assistance of not more than $5K per year for up to five years.

Senator Rita Sanders of Bellevue introduced LB1158 which is her priority bill. This bill has advanced to General File and its purpose is to update Nebraska’s Parental Involvement and Academic Transparency laws and foster a stronger relationship between the school and the parents. Under the bill, a policy would be required to include how the district will provide parents and guardians access to digital and learning materials and training materials for teachers, administrators and staff as well as procedures for the review and approval of such materials and activities. A policy would have to describe under what circumstances a parent or guardian could ask that their child be excused from learning materials, activities and guest speakers that the parent finds objectionable. The commissioner of education would withhold state aid from school districts that fail to make learning materials available to parents or guardians. The testimony stated that this would promote transparency in school district policies and curricula.

The final bill that I’ll mention is Senator Albrecht’s LB 768, which didn’t advance from the Education Committee. Many of you are aware of the recent controversial health standards that the State Board of Education was contemplating. The intent of Senator Albrecht’s bill (which I cosponsored) is to prevent the State Board of Education from creating health education standards for Nebraska public schools. It would allow the board to develop, approve, and adopt academic content standards for reading, writing, mathematics, science and social studies. Senator Albrecht said that LB768 would be a “long overdue check” on the State Board of Education and the state Department of Education. This bill received both support and opposition at the committee hearing.

I welcome any comments, questions, or ideas you may have on this or any other issue. Please feel free to email me at dmurman@leg.ne.gov or call my office at 402-471-2732.