Parents Testify to the Nebraska Legislature about K-12 Education in the Time of COVID

The Nebraska Legislature's Education Committee wanted to learn more about the state of K-12 education during COVID, so they held a hearing on October 27, 2020.

Several people, including parents, testified at the hearing. Since parents and guardians are the most important influences in children's, their voices are absolutely essential in any conversation about K-12 education. Sadly, some of the senators seemed disinterested in what the parents had to say. One state board of education member even complained on social media that she wanted to hear from parents but none testified.

​We post these videos and written testimony not only for her benefit, but also for other parents. It's been an incredibly challenging year for families. Parents, you're not alone if you feel you're not getting the support you need to properly educate your child. Hopefully, in the coming legislative session, the people we elect to represent us will do their jobs and advocate for our children. It's true that our children don't donate to their campaigns like the teachers unions do; that's why parents must be staunch defenders of their children. The public schools think they're entitled to your child's education funding, even if they can't or won't provide a solid education for her.

Watch the testimony of several of these courageous parents.

In this last video, notice the lines of questioning that come from Senator Pansing-Brooks, a teachers union-endorsed politician. Instead of focusing on children, she tries to find ways to attack the alternative school described by Zach Harsin. Does the school have oversight from the public schools? Do the teachers have to hold certain religious tenets? If she was listening to the testimony, she would have already heard how this method of education differs extensively from traditional public schools, but she asks, "What is it that you think you could provide that LPS is not doing or that the public schools are not doing?" It's pretty incredible that a politician would ask this of a father who has created his own school to meet the needs of his children.

Harsin politely explains to Pansing-Brooks that he sees Acton Academy as a disruptor. We need all the disruptors we can get if the rising generation is to have a chance at becoming educated and self-sufficient.

Below, you'll find a copy of the letter Zach Harsin gave to the senators on the Education Committee. Many thanks to Zach for allowing us to publish it here.

Zach Harsin's Testimony to the Education Committee

I come from a line of public school educators. My grandfather, father were both 40+ year teachers, I have 3 aunts and 3 cousins currently teaching in Nebraska and Colorado public schools with over 100 years of experience between them. I am not here today to talk down on public school teachers, administrators, coaches, etc.

I am the product of a public school system here in Nebraska. I played sports, was student council president, national honor society and graduated with a 4.0. 

I am here today because the system is broken. I’m here today because our world has changed. It’s NOT 1950 or even 1990 anymore. The world is leaving us behind and our schools continue to cost more and more and return less and less.

I’m in real estate and in my world that is a poor return on your investment and the reason I chose to seek a different route for my family.

I did all the right things, I got the good grades to get into the good school to get the good job. The problem, it’s not 1990. It’s not 1950. This notion is broken and it’s time change.

I graduated from my good school right here in Lincoln with over $65,000 in student loan debt, my wife was lucky, she only had $50,000.

This is not a good return on investment.

My wife and I knew we needed to do something different for our kids. We knew it would only be far worse when our children headed through the system.

But I’m not here to talk about the ills of higher education, I’m here to talk about K-12 education and school choice.

When we looked at school options we really didn’t know where to begin. We started where most families do, we looked at the small towns around Lincoln and moving to one of them. The problem, it was the same broken system, just smaller. The same was true of private schools in town.

Loads of homework starting in elementary school, teaching to the tests, students learning to memorize for said tests, not learning to truly learn. Sitting in desks for hours, trying to get each student to learn in the same way, to fit in the same box, to sit quietly while the teacher talks at them, usually reading or doing what they are told exactly to say or do. I don’t even have time to begin to talk about the changes that were forced upon my dad over his career, but let’s just say; he along with thousands of other amazing teachers in our public schools are no longer the ones making the decisions on how to best teach or to discuss in their own class rooms.

I also won’t even begin to get into the hot button topics of various curriculum being forced on families either. Needless to say, we were simply left with a pit in our stomachs. We didn’t want our children spending the next 13 years of their lives in a system with such a poor return on their time. We knew this broken and outdated system that robs the joy of learning from our children and the love of learning from our amazing teachers wasn’t for our family, but we didn’t know where to turn, knowing homeschooling wasn’t an option for our family either.

Then we found Acton. We knew in an instant this was what we had been looking for. The children are put in the driver’s seat of their education. Each child works to create and develop their own learning path, we have guides who are their to ask the questions of the child, not to answer questions, there are no tests, no homework and no grades, only mastery of subjects. It turns out students not only LOVE to learn, they can actually learn to become lifelong learners.

These 250 Microschools all around the world are maxing out standardized tests, they are completing 15+ internships before graduating high school, they are starting businesses, and even mastering calculus all without a formal instructor at the front of the room AND they are doing it all at a tuition rate that is HALF the nearly $14,000 the state of Nebraska spends per student.

Now that is a good return on your time invested and money invested.

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My wife and I originally were set to open our exempt school here in Lincoln next fall, but when Covid hit we had families who simply couldn't afford to wait. So we did what all entrepreneurs do, we adapted. And that’s the beauty of having choice, having options, you can be flexible and adapt in ways a large system simply cannot.

I’m here today to implore you to look at school choice. To look at our future and strongly consider the ways school choice can have a positive impact on the state of Education in Nebraska.

I leave you with this thought. It’s not about public verse private, it’s about bringing change to an industry that badly needs it and frankly isn’t forced to change because it has that nice word “public” in it. You see, I see Acton Academy, the DRASTIC rise in homeschooling, Micro Schools, pods, online learning all as disruptors.

Disruption paired with options in any industry is better for the end consumer. Case in point, Uber vs Taxis, Airbnb vs Tradition Hotels. When a disruptor enters an industry, the consumer now has choices and this forces both parties to innovate and provide a better product. Hotels have had to modernize how they do business, and whether or not you personally have ever or will ever use Airbnb, you have benefited from Airbnb and having the choice. Hotels are more flexible than ever on cancellations, offer better amenities, better pricing, and better customer service, all leading to a better consumer experience. Why? Two words. Consumer Choice.

Education needs choice and it needs it now more than ever. To quote my dad, a three time teacher of the year award winner at Blair High School, head football, boys track, girls track, boys cross country and girls cross country coach - “If you care about the child, truly care about their future, then you don’t care where they are learning, you simply want them to be in the best education environment possible.”

That is school choice and that is why we need it in Nebraska.


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Journal Star Article

Read more about the hearing in the piece published in the Lincoln Journal Star.