The Nebraska Board of Education voted Friday to oppose legislative bills that would authorize charter schools and vouchers, and to require the state Department of Education to rate school performance on an A-F scale.
The board supported several other education bills, but focused its discussion on bills which have generated significant opposition by public schools advocates and enthusiastic support by school choice proponents.
Discussion also centered on LB595, which would allow teachers and administrators to use physical force to subdue students who become physically violent toward others or school property.
Introduced by Education Committee Chairman Mike Groene of North Platte, the bill also would allow teachers to remove disruptive students from class.
In the end, elected members of the state education board voted to remain neutral on the bill, primarily because members wanted more information about it. But several said they had grave concerns about liability issues the bill would raise.
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Molly O’Holleran and Maureen Nickells wanted the board to oppose the bill, saying the issues it raises should be addressed by offering more training for teachers to deal with behavioral and mental health problems and to provide more services for children.
Board member Pat McPherson supports the bill, saying teachers need a mechanism to respond to disruptive students and maintain order in their classes.
McPherson was the only board member to support both the charter school and voucher bills -- and was the lone vote against opposing them.
LB630 would authorize charter schools in districts with low-performing public schools. LB608 would provide vouchers for students to attend private schools if their local schools are among the lowest-performing statewide.
Several board members questioned the constitutionality of the portion of LB630 that would create a separate commission to oversee charter schools.
McPherson abstained from an opposition vote on LB662, which prescribes a system for gauging school performance based on grades A-F.
Although he said he thinks LB662 addressed issues that need to be addressed, he also said it would be disruptive.
The department’s new accountability system, called AQuESTT, or Accountability for a Quality Education Today and Tomorrow, aligns well with requirements of the new federal education law and with the department’s strategic plan, McPherson said.
“To arbitrarily change it to an A-F system has the potential to cause major disruption to what we’re doing and what we’re planning to do,†he said during a work session Thursday.
AQuESTT classifies schools and districts into four categories based on graduation rate, proficiency levels on statewide tests and improvement in those scores from year to year. Now, state law requires the state intervene in three low-performing “priority†schools.
Several board members said the system includes many of the elements outlined in LB662, and it may be a matter of talking with lawmakers or tweaking the existing law.
For instance, Rachel Wise said she would like to see the department be able to identify more than three priority schools that need help to improve.
State education officials have spent a significant amount of time getting schools to buy into the new system by steering away from the punitive federal No Child Left Behind system that labeled schools as failing.
Education Commissioner Matt Blomstedt said that while the primary goal of an accountability system is to improve schools, the department may need to do a better job of balancing that with a system that makes it easy for the public to see how their schools are performing.