The Nebraska Parents for Public Educationwas formed last August. Shawn Bonge, NPPE member, says the group’s chief concern is funding.
The group wants the Nebraska Legislature to fully restore the funding cuts that were made in 2011.
Bonge says nationally, Nebraska ranks 47th in the percentage of state revenue that supports public schools…but NPPE feels the state still has a good education system.
Bonge says schools have new challenges now, with one being online testing.
Schools will have to have technical support in the buildings to be able to handle that challenge.
"Those are not just national tests but state level tests that are administered to see how our students are achieving and then those statistics are used to determine how a district is doing. And so if we are going to require that these districts are going to have to give state tests on computers, my opinion is then you have to provide the funding to obtain the equipment. And that’s not the case right now.”
Bonge says the funding formula the legislature designed takes the revenue streams of an area in combination with several other factors to determine a district’s needs.
From that, the legislature decides the amount of aid that district receives.