Offering tax credits for scholarships to private schools has been a controversial issue in Nebraska.

After tax-credit bills failed to pass in 2020 and 2021, this year the Opportunity Scholarships Act was signed into law. Legislative Bill 753 provides donors to scholarship-granting organizations a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for up to 50% of their income tax liability.

Carlie Jonas, policy associate at the Center for Rural Affairs, said public schools are a big part of rural Nebraska. She predicts communities will be affected by any loss of funding this bill creates, regardless of whether they have any private schools.

"In 48 of Nebraska's 93 counties, there are not any private schools and, as you move from the central to the western parts of the state, that's even more true," Jonas pointed out. "Only seven counties west of Kearney County have a private school," which is seven of the 38 counties in the region.

Jonas said the Center's analysis found a huge disparity between the Opportunity Scholarships Act tax credit and the standard tax credit for donations. Someone owing $100,000 in income taxes could reduce their tax liability by $50,000 by donating $50,000 to a scholarship-granting organization. But donating that $50,000 to a charitable group would reduce their tax liability by only around $3,300.

Supporters of the bill maintain it gives Nebraska families more freedom to pick the school that best fits their child's needs.

Dave Welsch, a retired Nebraska organic farmer and longtime school board member from Milford, said he worries about the losses other Nebraska charities may experience if the law stands.

"With LB-753, it takes one brand-new charitable organization, the scholarship-granting organizations and elevates them," Welsch noted. "And it actually incentivizes people to give to them because they're offering a dollar-for-dollar income tax credit."

Welsch also anticipates lost tax revenue from the measure, combined with the 2023 income tax breaks, will lead to a revenue shortage. His decades on a school board have shown him that usually means cuts in public school funding.

He also believes providing public dollars for private schools goes against the state Constitution.

"That's why they had to create this scheme to create scholarship-granting organizations," Welsch contended. "So that when individuals and corporations donate to them, then they can offer up this dollar-for-dollar income tax credit."

Jonas emphasized that the experience of other states, such as Arizona, where its scholarship fund has grown to an annual $250 million, should be a warning to Nebraska.

"It leads them to rely more heavily on local taxes, like property taxes, to fund the budget deficit," Jonas explained. "In Nebraska this is an issue, with the amount of property taxes used for public schools."

A petition drive is underway to get the measure on the ballot in the 2024 election, as is an opposing drive aimed at keeping people from signing.

In the wake of Donald Trump's re-election, teachers nationwide are bracing for more censorship battles. Currently, more than 40 laws in 22 states restrict teaching about race, gender, history and queer identities.

Oregon is not immune to this trend, with 93 book-removal attempts last year, a 30-year record. Educators recently shared their experiences with censorship at the Teaching Truth forum.

Jesse Hagopian, the Seattle-based author of "Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education," said it's a topic of discussion.

"You're hearing from a lot of teachers already about what the repression looks like, but it's severe right now. You're dealing with, now, almost half of all kids going to a school where it's illegal for kids to learn the truth about U.S. history," he said.

Earlier this year, Republicans attempted to change Oregon's constitution to give parents the right to decide what materials are appropriate for their children's education. The amendment was voted down.

Lisa Stiller, a retired teacher who worked in rural and urban Oregon school districts, said it is important to give students space to ask questions about uncomfortable topics in school.

"If you think that a book with racial content has some deep issues I want to hear why. I don't want the discussion to be thrown out because it's controversial," she said.

Most attempts at banning books have been unsuccessful so far in Oregon, meeting legal challenges by the ACLU and other civil-rights groups. In September, a new rule banning Portland Public School teachers from posting anything personal or political in their classrooms was met with an official grievance from the teachers union.

Hagopian said it isn't enough to try to reverse laws that restrict teaching about racism and LGBTQ+ issues.

"We're fighting to expand Black studies, ethnic studies, queer studies, gender studies in our school so every kid can understand themselves, see themselves, and be empowered with the history of social movements they need to change this system," he explained.


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School boards are nonpartisan, but a recent trend in Wyoming shows far-right candidates are bringing national politics to local elections. Public school advocates want the focus of school boards to stay on students. Some Wyoming counties with school board races in the recent election saw campaign materials closely aligned with national politics, including slogans such as "Make Education Great Again," according to reporting from the Powell Tribune.

Brian Farmer, executive director of the Wyoming School Boards Association, said school boards have been around since the 1650s and are meant to create and fulfill a vision for a school system.

"School boards really are about communities taking ownership of their public schools," he explained. "Oftentimes, people say "we need parent voices," "we need voices of business," "we need taxpayer voices." Those are all of the voices that tend to be represented on school boards."

In 2021, a Wyoming lawmaker wrote a bill that would have required school board candidates to have a party affiliation on the ballot. The bill was not introduced. Farmer said he has seen more political action committees supporting candidates, groups of candidates running in alliance and local parties endorsing those slates of candidates.

The Wyoming Family Alliance got involved in elections this year. More than one-third of the questions on its candidate questionnaire were about gender, sex-ed or pregnancy.

Nate Martin, executive director of Better Wyoming, said this group and others have an ulterior motive.

"A lot of these groups are explicitly invested in tearing down public education and replacing it with more of a charter or voucher private-school, religious-school model," Farmer contended.

Martin added that most people in Wyoming "think that their local school boards are good."

He said candidates associated with these groups made fewer strides in the 2024 election than in 2022, and thinks communities are returning to "local conversations."

"When we get caught up in the adult issues, that's where we tend to have the problem. If we can simplify things to doing what's best for kids, then school board governance becomes a lot easier," he continued.


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In an unprecedented collaboration, the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida have partnered with the Association of Private Colleges and Universities of Puerto Rico to create new educational opportunities and tackle critical workforce shortages in both places.

This groundbreaking agreement is believed to be the first of its kind between nonprofit educational associations in the country to help foster student success, innovation, and community development.

Carmen Cividanes Lago, executive director of the association in Puerto Rico, says for students, the partnership means the chance to dive into fields such as nursing, teaching, and research, addressing real-world needs in their communities while gaining the experience of studying in a different culture.

"Academic offerings and research and publications, and students being able to get involved in publications in Puerto Rico and Florida at the same time, in one go," Cividanes said. "The sky is the limit. It's fantastic what we can achieve with this sort of agreement."

Both organizations, which are part of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, represent private, independent colleges and universities within their regions. Now, students can earn degrees that might otherwise be out of reach and access specialized programs, such as double degrees in health sciences or teaching. The goal is to help propel the opportunity to solve workforce needs in both regions.

Bob Boyd, president and CEO of the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida, views the agreement as a testament to the adaptability and responsiveness of private institutions in meeting new demands.

"One of the things we like to say about our sector is we're nimble and we can evolve quickly to address workforce shortages and we're not asking the state for any contributions. This will all help students and help our institutions, and so we're able to do this leveraging the private sector, the non-private sector," he explained.

The partnership between the two organizations coincides with the Florida Legislature's recent adoption of a state resolution recognizing November as "Puerto Rican Heritage Month," starting this year. The resolution aims to celebrate Florida's vibrant Puerto Rican community, which numbers nearly $1.2 million, and its contributions to the state's shared identity and sense of unity.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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