Will Nebraska Give Poor Kids a Way Out of Failing Schools?

"People think about corn fields when they think about Nebraska," says Clarice Jackson, co-founder of the education-reform nonprofit L.E.A.R.N. Coalition, "but if you live in North Omaha, things are drastically different."

"We have one of the highest African-American school-to-prison juvenile detention rates in the nation, and we need to do some things to change that. One of the key things is education."

Jackson is part of a movement in the Cornhusker state to create more public options for kids who want an alternative to their district schools. Nebraska is one of only seven states that don't have any charter schools, voucher programs, or other publicly funded alternatives to traditional public schools.

On January 28, 2016, a coalition of education reform advocates came together at the state capitol building in Lincoln to call for new legislation to change that.

Reason TV was there to cover the rally.

The event was part of National School Choice Week (NSCW), an annual event that aims to raise public awareness of the need for more options in K-12 education. Reason is a media sponsor of NSCW, which this year featured over 16,000 events in all 50 states.

Produced by Jim Epstein and Justin Monticello.

Three minutes.

[idriwzrd]

Taxpayers should receive breaks for sending kids to private schools.

[CaliforniaArchitect]

I believe in the separation of school and state.

[Aaron.Reichert]

I live in nebraska and have children on the cusp of entering the schooling system. I welcome any improvement, and cheer for school choice. We are looking at moving to a better school district.

[TReeves]

The problem: teachers unions. The solution: vouchers.

[AKlover]

How about instead curtailing welfare, ending the child tax credit, and ending the drug war.

[newweaponsdc]

The very corrupt Teachers Union is what kills bills like this, the unions only exist to protect public school teachers no matter how incompetent, abusive, or absent they might be, they never do anything to help the students.

[BonnieBlueA]

Parental involvement is key.  If the parents at home are not teaching children to read, if they are reading to their children, if they are not doing this well before the child is of elementary school age, of course the child can make it to 4th grade and beyond illiterate.   Ultimately the responsibility for education is the parents' not the school district.

[levaris]

FYI - Mrs. Jackson's daughter has dyslexia. So if you are wondering how that is even possible for the average child to get to 4th grade and still be labeled illiterate despite going to school (however bad) and having caring parents that is how. The school apparently lacked the training to help someone with dyslexia.

[Serahpin]

What's with the sudden school kick? All school all the time.

[malikmalak]

Improving the schools and opening charter schools are good ideas but sending kids to other zip-codes is not. In my experience as a student and a teacher, bringing kids over from other zip-codes causes more problems than it solves. 1) Over crowding; since everyone wants their kid to go to the best school of choice. 2) Long commutes; if the kids misses the bus, most low income families are unable to get their kid to school because the distance is too far. 3) Unobtainable expectations; if the school is not set up to have mixed leveled students, they will fail most of their classes. 4) Heightened segregation; simply put, America is raciest.

[finerbiner]

Not much here to formulate any kind of opinion with.

[elchefe]

At 2:00min
How can you be illiterate in 4th grade? (despite medical reasons...)

[erikmanning]

yes also schools are being paid extra money to bus some of them to other more suburban schools in outlying areas like my old high school Bellevue West just south of Omaha, these kids are extremely disruptive I can tell you from many first hand experiences in and out of the Omaha public school system.

[shellydurunna]

So instead of investing in programs to better the kids at that school and making the school better. They want to give private schools tax dollars. I wonder who is really running this dog and pony show.