Nebraska charter school debate heats up

Posted by: Abigail Wood

awood@klkntv.com

Stand for Schools hosted a rally outside the capitol building Tuesday in support of traditional public schools. They’re pushing back against a bill in the legislature that would allow public charter schools in Nebraska.

"Will charter schools help us with the educational challenges we have here in Nebraska?" said Ann Hunter-Pirtle with Stand for Schools. "And the answer to that question is clearly no."

Stand for Schools says our current school system is strong. They say charter schools, which are privately-run public school options, would just take tax dollars from traditional schools without helping in the long run.

"We also already have school choice," Hunter-Pirtle said. "Not only can parents choose to spend their kids to private, parochial schools or home school them, but within public schools we have a range of options available for students."

Charter school advocates met Tuesday as well. They say charter schools give families the freedom to pick the best education for their kids, regardless of background.

"Charter schools have been very successful in high minority, low income communities, which in Nebraska is where the lowest performing schools are," said Katie Linehan with Educate Nebraska.

Teachers are also not part of a union in a charter school, so they hire and maintain based on effectiveness instead of tenure. Jason Epting has been a charter school principal in New York for six years now. He grew up and went to school here in Nebraska and says there are good schools, and that not all charter schools are perfect, but there’s room for improvement in our state.
 
"I’m not in the business of charter vs public," Epting said. "I just want school choice so that everybody has the opportunity to get the best education possible."

Charter schools do still answer to the State Board of Education, and have to take students based on public school opportunity rules.