 Attend a school board meeting in Nebraska, and you’ll hear the acronym “ESU” tossed around. But what is an ESU? Created by the Nebraska State Legislature in 1965 (LB 301), Educational Service Units (ESUs) are intermediate agencies that provide supplementary services to school districts. There are 17 ESUs in Nebraska, and most of them cover multiple school districts. The idea behind ESUs is that by sharing resources, smaller rural school districts can increase cost-effectiveness and share resources that might be too expensive on a small scale. Two school districts (Lincoln and Omaha) have their own ESUs. For these districts, the ESUs are essentially additional layers of bureaucracy with their own budgets funded by property taxes, and there have been concerns about internal controls. Since ESUs are relatively unknown to taxpayers, citizens, and parents, it’s not difficult to use them as shields for various expenditures and activities, and it appears that Sherwood-funded nonprofits have been using Nebraska ESUs for political activism purposes. Additionally, by tapping into ESUs, the Buffetts can exert influence over many districts at the same time. Let’s take a look at another way Dark Money has infiltrated K-12 education in Nebraska.  Propaganda Aimed at ESU #13 and ESU #15NSCA Ambassador Cinde Wendell (remember that the NSCA Ambassadors are funded by the Sherwood Foundation) appears to have traveled out to Scottsbluff to attend the ESU #13 Administrative Advisory Council Meeting on October 26, 2016. According to the meeting minutes, “NCSA has formed partnerships with Nebraska Loves Public Schools to develop video stories and with Nebraska Public School Advantage to develop written stories.” Partnerships? All three of these organizations are funded by the Sherwood Foundation. They’re just arms of the same powerful machine. According to the ESU meeting minutes, Wendell told the ESU officials that “charter schools are about business and profit” and she recommended that they read Reign of Error by Diane Ravitch, who happens to be a close associate of Sherwood’s Susie Buffett. The meeting minutes show that Wendell played clips of an anti-charter video by comedian John Oliver and another one by Diane Ravitch, who was invited to speak to 1,500 educators in Omaha in 2015 about “unnecessary reforms, such as charter schools.” These materials are politically biased and antithetical to the peer-reviewed research being published today. After giving misleading information about public charter schools at this public, taxpayer-funded meeting, the content of the meeting really gets political. The following is a direct quote from the minutes: We need to work together to promote our public schools—talk with administrators, teachers and parents and get information on your school websites. Pro charter legislation has been proposed in the past but doesn’t advance out of committee. There has been some talk about vouchers and tax credits. Not aware of pending legislation at this time. Cinde: “Let us know how we can help. Thanks for what you do for public education.” If you want individual presentations at your school, just let me know.” Brochure with Cinde’s business card and “Talking Points for Public Schools” were also distributed. [we omitted contact information for Wendell] Question: Is there a website that would show the position of candidates regarding charter schools? Cinde will check and get information to you. We know that Ricketts has given financial support to charter school proponents who support education reform and education choices. West: “We appreciate the time you’ve given us. Politics in Lincoln are changing. It would be wise for us to be aware of happenings in these areas and begin planning (proactive). We need to pay attention to candidates’ platforms. We need to get more engaged politically.” In other words, Sherwood-funded nonprofits are using our taxpayer-funded meetings to spread misleading propaganda and shore up the monopolistic status quo. They’re using their billionaire backing to prevent Nebraska students from having access to education opportunities that are available nearly everywhere else in the United States. The following tweet shows a visit Cinde Wendell made to ESU #15 just this past month.  One or two visits to ESUs by these political activists wouldn't be an issue, but we've found a widespread pattern. The following are a sampling: ESU #1 ESU #3, ESU #3 ESU #4, ESU #4 ESU #6 ESU #7 ESU #9 ESU #10 ESU #13 ESU #15 Visits to ESU #17The meeting minutes for the ESU #17 Advisory Council on August 28, 2018 include the following sentence: “Mike Dulaney will be joining a couple of advisory council meetings this year to keep us abreast of legislative issues.” Who is this Mike Dulaney? And what political messaging is he spreading throughout the state via the ESUs? The following tweets from Mike Dulaney seem to indicate that he’s shoring up the monopoly rather than seeking customizable educational options for Nebraska’s diverse K-12 populations.  In 2016, the Sherwood Foundation reported in their 990 IRS form that they gave $255,000 to the Nebraska Council of School Administrators for their Ambassador Program. The following year, NCSA spent $265,165 on their Ambassador Program according to their 990 IRS form, a program which consists of the Nebraska Public School Advantage staff (the NPSA website staff picture is at NCSA’s headquarters). These Sherwood-funded organizations work in parallel with Sherwood-funded Nebraska Loves Public Schools campaign, according to their website. Michael Dulaney is the registered lobbyist for NCSA, and their organization reports spending of about $55,000/year on lobbying. NCSA has also reported the following amounts of grants and contributions on their 990s in revenues (not including member dues): 2015: $85,009 2016: $265,165 2017: $495,935 In other words, Mike Dulaney is a lobbyist who is paid by billionaires to travel around the state spreading propaganda to both elected and unelected school officials. This propaganda is aimed at making sure low-income parents have no education options outside of the traditional public schools. It’s a common talking point among this set that “Nebraska already has school choice in the form of option enrollment, private school, and homeschool." Everyone knows that low-income families can’t drive their children to other towns for school or afford private school tuition or sacrifice a parent's income in order to homeschool. Most other states have solved this problem by introducing school choice measures that offer additional options to families who need alternatives. And that’s what the education establishment in Nebraska is trying to prevent. Such a move would dilute their control, influence, and power and put the power back into the hands of children’s parents. The line separating government for and by the people from billionaire control and influence has been blurred so effectively in Nebraska education that it’s almost invisible. Nonprofits and lobbyists should not have such unfettered access to and influence over educators and administrators. Parents should not be an afterthought when it comes to children’s educations. What "Supporting Public Schools" Really MeansWhen the state senators created the ESU system back in 1965, they probably never dreamed that it would be used as a network for distributing propaganda created by billionaires in order to keep Nebraska in the educational Dark Ages. The conglomeration of Sherwood-funded nonprofits trying to prevent progress in Nebraska says that they’re “supporting public schools” when really they’re trying to discredit educational options that would fall outside of the monopoly that currently exists in Nebraska’s K-12 education system. It’s all laid out in this NCSA article from Summer 2016, “Promoting Nebraska’s Public Schools” by Dr. Mike Dulaney. The NCSA board and Nebraska Loves Public Schools (Sherwood-funded) decided to create another organization called Nebraska Public School Advantage (is this another example of nonprofits funding nonprofits?). The NCSA Ambassadors (Sherwood-funded) would travel around the state “supporting public schools” and collecting positive stories about public schools to be told via film and print. But if we read the ESU meeting minutes correctly, NCSA Ambassadors aren’t just spreading cheer and goodwill; they’re also spreading propaganda and misleading political messages. In the meantime, fewer than half of Nebraska’s students are reaching proficiency standards. If these Sherwood-funded groups genuinely cared about the quality of our public schools, they would beg the state legislature to open the doors to public charter schools and tax-credit scholarships. Studies show that the introduction of these options elevates the standards at all schools, not just at the option schools. In fact, a new study based on data from Massachusetts shows that district public schools facing charter school competition shift resources from support services to instruction, where many parents and taxpayers believe that money should be in the first place. It’s not a stretch to assume that quality K-12 education isn’t a top priority for those pushing the agenda of Sherwood-funded nonprofits. If it were, their actions would be very different. Catch up on the Series: Part One: NCSA and Affiliates Part Two: Elected Officials ESU Leaders,
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