Why is LPS Out of Control?

Lincoln Public School District has landed in hot water once again in the wake of the district's admonition against flying the American flag from vehicles in the Career Academy parking lot. As in the aftermath of the Purple Penguins episode, people from across the country are scratching their heads: "we thought Nebraska was supposed to be a rational sort of place."

Nebraska is a rational sort of place, but unlike most of the rest of the country, Nebraska doesn't have checks and balances built into its school system. Nebraska doesn't have school choice.

What Does School Choice Have to Do With It?
There's no competition in the public school system in Lincoln, Nebraska. If you can't afford to homeschool or pay private school tuition, you send your children to Lincoln Public Schools. LPS is a monopoly, so it can get away with trampling on students' rights, wasting valuable teacher training time on unproven gender theories, and swaying students' political opinions, and there are very few repercussions for this behavior from our administrators. Yes, occasionally, they end up on the front page of Fox News, but they don't lose many students. That's because there's nowhere else for the students to go.

If there were charter schools in Nebraska, however, LPS would begin reforming immediately. Charter schools are public schools: students don't have to pay tuition to attend them, and there are no admission requirements (anyone can attend). If there were a charter school in Lincoln that focused exclusively on academic achievement (no purple penguins or flag shaming), there would probably be a few parents who would switch their kids over to the charter school. The taxpayer money that supports the kids' educations would follow the kids to the charter school and LPS would receive less taxpayer money. It wouldn't take long before LPS would realize that they need to focus less on social justice and more on academics. In this way, school choice would not only help the kids who switch to charter schools or private schools (through tax-credit scholarships), but it would also help the tens of thousands of students who attend LPS schools.

Want to Keep Lincoln, Nebraska, Out of the News? Demand School Choice.
Have you wondered why LPS keeps making appearances in the national news? There are no checks and balances in our education system in Nebraska. Just as we have checks and balances in our federal government, most states have checks and balances in their school systems (charter schools, Education Savings Accounts, tax-credit scholarships). Without the checks and balances inherent in school choice, districts like LPS can get out of control. Insulated from impactful feedback like student transfers to non-district schools, LPS is free to pursue any agenda it chooses.

School choice improves academic outcomes for one simple reason: parents value student achievement over other priorities. When schools know that student achievement is the parents' number one priority, they focus heavily on student achievement. They try to avoid influencing students politically in one direction or the other because this may offend some parents on either side of the political spectrum, and when you offend parents, they may withdraw their students and put them in another school where you can't control their children's education funds. Thus, schools become more moderate and more focused on education.

How Can We Get School Choice?
Currently, 43 states and the District of Columbia have charter schools (public schools that have the freedom to operate outside of district and school board constraints). The teachers unions and organizations like Nebraska Loves Public Schools have worked hard to misinform Nebraskans about charter schools because they don't want to lose control over your tax dollars. In states that have had school choice for decades, teachers union membership is way down because charter schools don't usually negotiate contracts with unions. The NSEA and LEA certainly don't want to see their membership drop. If they do, they'll lose the amazing political sway they currently enjoy in Nebraska politics.

From the recent election we've learned, however, that money isn't everything in politics. We the people elect representatives to represent us. If we want the checks and balances that school choice provides, we need to let our state legislators know. We need to tell them that enough is enough. We don't want a monopoly that uses our tax dollars to mislead our children. We want our children to gain solid academic skills that will give them opportunity in the future. If our legislators ignore us and continue to do the unions' bidding in order to receive campaign contributions, we simply won't elect them again.

School choice laws are decided by the state legislature. Contact your state senator and tell him or her that you want to see school choice enacted in Nebraska. Learn about Education Savings Accounts, tax-credit scholarships, and charter schools. Tell your friends and acquaintances about the power school choice has to improve our schools and keep LPS in check. Most of the rest of the country has it. Why not Nebraska?

Learn more by attending the Nebraska School Choice Week Rally on Thursday, January 26, 2017, at the Nebraska State Capitol Building. More than 800 students came last year. This year promises to be much bigger! Everyone is invited. You won't want to miss it!

Like the Nebraska School Choice Week Facebook page to stay informed of all the festivities.