STEM charter schools are popping up all over the country, some with specific emphases like the new all-girl STEM public charter school in St. Louis, Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls for grades 6-12.

The STEM-based school in this video, however, could be a wonderful model for a charter school in Lincoln because of its collaboration with an R1 university. Here in Lincoln, we're fortunate to have amazing academic resources in University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Like Purdue has done with Purdue Polytechnic High School, UNL could do here in Lincoln. Offering a world-class STEM education to Lincoln students could open pathways to entrepreneurship and a high-tech workforce that could benefit Lincoln for generations to come.

The curriculum for Purdue Polytechnic High School is being developed by Purdue professors, and the school will offer some dual-credit opportunities that will help these students, many of whom are first-generation college attendees, to reduce their university costs and shorten their journey to a bachelor's degree.

This is yet another example of the way school choice can benefit individual students and the entire community--innovation and progress in education are inevitable when people have the freedom to think outside the traditional public school district model.

If you want to talk to someone who has heard it all when it comes to arguments against school choice, try Senator Ember Reichgott, the chief sponsor of the very first charter school legislation in the country, which was passed back in 1991.

In an interview last month, Reichgott explained that the myths told by charter school opponents in 2015 are exactly the same myths told back in 1991. We've been hearing lots of these myths here in Nebraska lately, especially the following one.

Myth: Charter Schools Take Money From Traditional Public Schools

This is one of those myths that has been around since 1991. What does Senator Reichgott have to say about it?

She says, "The fact is the public money follows the student to the charter school and every child deserves an excellent education.” For example, when a child moves from the Lincoln Public School district to the Millard Public School district, no one cries foul when public dollars follow the child.

“It’s who gets to control the money,” said Junge, explaining why critics are upset when the money follows a child to a charter school. “When you have the money in a district, the superintendent gets to choose where they want to spend it, in what area of the city, what program, what particular student is going to get more funding than others. But when the money goes to a public charter school, there’s a lock on the door and the superintendent cannot get to the money. It’s out of his or her hands and that’s why you hear this.”