In 1990,Ted Kolderie, one of the designers of the country's first charter legislation, wrote a manuscript entitled The States Will Have to Withdraw. The following excerpt aptly describes the current state of Nebraska's K12 educational structure.

"The state does not deal with schools; it deals with districts. Legally schools do not exist: Districts exist. The district is defined by its boundaries. These create an area in which there is one and only one organization offering public education, to whose schools the kids who live in that area are assigned. Public education is organized as a pattern of territorial exclusive franchises."

"That exclusive franchise is the heart of the problem.

• It means the state agrees the district will have the final decision about improvement. Governors and legislators like to talk as if they control improvement. They don't. They can propose and promise, plead and threaten. They can give money. They can issue orders. And often the districts do respond. But whether they do or not in the end is up to them. If the district does not give the kids a good education the state does not send in another organization that will. It accepts the pace of improvement at which the district is able or willing to move.
• The state also agrees to accept whatever reasons the district has for it decision to change or not to change, even if those reasons have to do mainly with the private and personal interests of the adults involved, as they sometimes do.
• And the state agrees to accept those decisions and the reasons for them, whether or not the students learn. Within very broad limits the state assures the districts their material success--their existence, their students, their revenues, their security; everything except their annual increases--independent of the level of student success."

"Nobody should wonder why in public education "the cards are stacked against innovation." An organization with that kind of exclusive franchise feels no need to change. . ."

. . ."The risks are real. There is nothing countervailing: nothing that requires kids' interests to be put first; nothing very bad that will happen if the decision is to say 'no.' As things stand a 'no' is the end of the matter: The principal who wants to change has nowhere else to go; the teacher has nowhere else to go; parents and students have nowhere else to go."

"There is almost nothing anyone can change without getting someone else's permission. Yet almost everyone has the power to check everyone else."

"And practically nothing depends on making the improvements for which the public is pressing: clear objectives, measurement of performance, new technology or better learning methods."

"Unless something quite unusual happens the students and the revenues will be there anyway. Good educators tell their colleagues, 'We have to change.' But that is not true in any real sense. They do not have to."

"The kids get what altruism, courage and the random appearance of exceptional individuals provide in the way of improvement--which is often a lot. But the system puts them second. The system puts adults first. As Albert Shanker told the Itasca Seminar in Minnesota in 1988: 'This is a system that can take its customers for granted.'"

In 1991, Minnesota legislators chose to do something about their system, which took "its customers for granted." They passed charter school legislation, providing choice and accountability within the public school system. In the years since, nearly every other state in the country has made the same realization and made reforms that will put kids first and adults second. And yet, here in Nebraska, we still have a system that "can take its customers for granted."

In fact, in Lincoln, public school officials take this to an extreme by hiring "consultants" to insult and harass parents and citizens who express desires for the reform. To add insult to injury, these "consultants" are hired with our tax dollars: We pay people to harass us for wanting the educational options available to families across the country. This will continue as long as we allow it. Contact your state legislator and explain that school choice is long overdue in Nebraska. It's time to put children first.

A video has surfaced showing youth stomping on the American Flag. This video hurts a lot of veterans and other Americans because they feel that these students have been disrespectful to this country. At the same time we have to ask what has this country done for these youth. 

My granddad was a police officer and has been a community leader my whole life. I attended a basketball game with him and he didn’t place his hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance. I asked him why and he told me that America hasn’t done much for black people. 

It took me a while to think of why he would say something like that, and then I remembered where he came from. My granddad grew up in Indianapolis, IN the birthplace of the KKK. He went to an all black school, where they were provided with second-class equipment and facilities. They were extremely talented at basketball so the city would place them in a college arena because everyone else wanted to see them play.

The school received 25% of the concessions to go to their athletic budget while the other schools and city would retain the majority of the resources. Every team they played was all white, the teams would foul and abuse my granddad’s team but they were so good that they couldn’t be beat. Crispus Attacks went undefeated but there was no movie, even though they beat the Hoosiers team repeatedly because they lived in the same state. 

He came from a time where as a black man, you knew that you had to be better in every way to succeed. Being black made you strong because you knew that the chips where stacked against you but your pride would not let you fail. Now, we are at a crossroads of a revolution with the deaths of black men at the forefront. 

For too long we have taken ourselves for granted and allowed this country to do the same. At first I believed that race wasn’t an issue in this country but as I mature I am faced with the reality that race is no longer the only issue. With that being said this country has taken a systematic approach to destroying the foundation of any community through removing it’s male leadership. This is especially true of black leadership in this country as neither Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. nor Malcolm X made it to age 40. 

To educate any man on whom he is and the power that is inside of him is to give him the keys to his universe. We must teach a history that invokes a sense of self-pride and aspire to proudly serve your community as those have before you. What history do we teach our youth of color? They come from slaves or immigrated to this country, were treated terrible until we actually decided that everyone man and woman had rights regardless of their color. 

I never lived through that but my granddad did and so did my grandmother who was an educator and the first black female senator in the state of Nebraska. There has to be a shift in our expectations and actions for engaging our youth. No longer can we be satisfied with low income and rural students getting a second-class education. We can no longer settle for voting for candidate and government officials who have no knowledge of their community and our fundraisers pawns. 

We must change the way we educate our youth by focusing on holistic education. Teaching on the basic fundamentals of reading and writing but also having a strong knowledge of self, interpersonal communication, health and spirituality. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “Character plus critical thinking is the true goal of education.”

I can’t wait to live in a nation where I am proud to put my hand over my heart because it is a country I love. I’m sure that America will be beautiful again one day, until then we will work to heal America’s pain. By allowing it’s residents to choose the best option for their child’s education instead of sending them to dropout factories. Charter schools allow that option for Nebraska children and families, which is exactly what we need and deserve. 

They serve the students who need it most by providing a specialized option designed for student-focused success. Student focused, not test score focused. Holistic education, not teaching to a test for dollars. Physical education requirements, creativity (art, music, theatre, tech) focused, real life experiences and the expectation of success! Not shuffling from room to room, texting in class, outdated curricula, and coasting through school. 

The only renewable resource is our youth! Every single one of those kids deserves an education tailored for them to succeed. School choice gives our communities that option and gives us control over the future of our youth. I am successful because my granddad taught me a history that let me know that dreams come true and I intend to make sure that every youth has that same opportunity. 

by Deb Portz

If we look at 2015 ACT Comprehensive (Math, Science and Reading) and College-readiness scores comparing the nation and the state of Nebraska to Lincoln and Lancaster County (as reported on school and district websites as well as the ACT website), we find the following:

National Average – 21.0. ACT College-readiness – 28%. 57% participation of U.S. graduating students.
Nebraska Average – 21.5. ACT College-readiness – 29%. 86% participation of Nebraska graduating students.
Lincoln Public Schools Average – 20.7. ACT College-readiness - 22%. 100% participation of LPS graduating students (opt-outs from district-wide ACT administration are not reported). LPS's highest performing high school average is Lincoln East at 23.3. LPS's lowest performing high school average is Lincoln High at 18.5.
Norris Public Schools Average – 24.2 ACT College-readiness score 44%. 94% participation of graduating students. 
Lincoln St. Pius X High School Average – 24.3. ACT College-readiness score 45%. 93% participation of graduating students.

What if we gave those who feel they have no choice over their educational outcomes the choices they deserve?

Opportunity scholarship programs allow individuals and corporations to allocate a portion of their owed state taxes to private nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations that issue scholarships to K-12 students. The scholarship allows a student to choose among a list of private schools, and sometimes public schools outside of the district, approved by the scholarship organization. The scholarship is used to pay tuition, fees, and other related expenses. As a result, the state does not have to appropriate per-pupil education funding for those students that receive scholarships.

An educational tax credit is different than a school voucher in that a tax credit does not take any money away from public schools for each pupil they educate, raise any taxes, or require any additional state spending. Unlike a voucher, which takes tax dollars and state spending away from a public school, educational tax credits are incentives for non-profits, businesses and individuals to contribute to an educational scholarship fund which in turn allows them to have a higher tax deduction percentage than a regular contribution would give them.   

Tax credits allow for a fully-funded broad-based student outreach for school choice without using taxpayer dollars.  For the users of these educational scholarships, income parameters are means-tested for those who would qualify to attend a school choice alternative.  Fifteen states have educational tax credits in place already.  Educational tax credits give parents the choice to improve the educational outcomes they decide on for their children. 

Tax credits improve accountability in education to parents and taxpayers by holding poor performing public schools accountable for academic performance because they lose students in the choice options. It can also be seen as a positive to alleviate the issues highlighted by public schools that they are burdened with attendance growth as a deterrent to high performance in educational outcomes since students in overcrowded public schools have the option to choose to attend another school.  It is a very clear savings for the state on a per pupil allocation because more money is coming in for education from donations.  It gives the state broader eligibility for the allocation that they have to distribute from the state and taxpayer pool of dollars. 

A Nebraska state senator recently told constituents on Facebook that if they wanted school choice they should put their kids in private school.

He’s not alone in projecting this exclusive attitude. Parents in Lincoln have repeatedly been told by supporters of the Big Learning Organization Bureaucracies (BLOB), “If you don’t like __________ [fill in the blank with ‘truancy policies,’ ‘curriculum,’ ‘excessive district testing,’ ‘Planned Parenthood speakers,’ ‘IEP methodologies,’ ‘school calendar,’ ‘elective-heavy graduation requirements,’ etc.], then send your kids to private school or homeschool them.”

In other words, “If you or your children don’t fit our mold, you’re welcome to leave” (but then you’ll have to pay for your kids’ educations on top of your property taxes).

Wait a second. Isn’t this public education? Did someone usurp the authority to say what the mold is and who fits it?

John Adams said,

Note that John Adams didn’t say that a large union-controlled bureaucracy should maintain the schools. He didn’t say that a few people could control all of the money taxpayers give toward public education. He said the people themselves should maintain the schools.

Lincoln, Nebraska, is a good-sized town with a diverse population. It’s not realistic to think that a bureaucracy like LPS can meet the needs of every K-12 student in town. There are nearly 50,000 K-12 students in Lincoln between the district students, private school students, and homeschooled students. How can a single bureaucracy effectively educate all of these children? It can’t, no matter how beneficent its intentions.

The only path to inclusive public education for all students is the school choice path. “Our way or the highway”--aside from being exclusive and presumptuous--leaves students out in the cold. That’s why we have a sizable percentage of students in Lincoln who are failing to meet basic proficiency standards. That’s why employers are complaining that young workers are coming to them without passable reading and critical thinking skills. There’s no reason for so many students to fall through the cracks—unless the BLOB is imposing on them a mold that doesn’t fit everyone.

With school choice, students can find the schools and educational resources that help them to succeed:

• Some students can go to private schools on tax credit scholarships. Some students can use vouchers to pay for homeschool curriculum.
  
  
• Some students can go to charter schools that focus on their unique educational needs and interests.
  
  
• Some students can go to local neighborhood district schools.
  
  
• Some students can receive special therapies and services through Educational Savings Accounts.
  

In the end, ALL students can achieve and thrive. With school choice, ALL students are included.

Next time a supporter of the BLOB tells you to take a hike if your child doesn’t fit the mold, remind that person that you pay the same rate of property taxes that he does. You care as much about your community as he does. And you take the inclusive route: you support school choice because all children deserve a quality education that meets their needs.

At School Choice Lincoln, all really does mean all.