- Westside Middle School
- Westside Middle School
December 2, 2021 | District Leaders Highlight Legislative Priorities for 2022
Posted December 2,. 2021
Westside Community Schools
Legislative Priorities for the 2022 Legislative Session
BACKGROUND:
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Westside Community Schools has approximately 6,100 students enrolled this school year.
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35% of Westside’s enrollment qualifies for free or reduced priced meals; 33% of enrollment lives outside of district boundaries; 14% of students qualify for special education services.
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Our 2021-22 budget is $85.7 million.
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During the 2020-21 budget year, just over 60% of our total revenue came from local property taxes. (The national average is approximately 30%).
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Nebraska ranks 19th in the country in per pupil spending.
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Nebraska ranks #2 in the country in percentage of school district spending that stays in the classroom.
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LEGISLATIVE POSITIONS:
WESTSIDE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS SUPPORTS THE CURRENT SCHOOL DISTRICT BOUNDARIES AND PROCESS.
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K-12 education in the Metro area is already competitive because there are many strong school districts providing plenty of choice.
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Smaller school districts increase local control for area residents.
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Local control allows school districts to ensure neighborhood schools and tailored learning models for its students.
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Current law already provides a voluntary process among locally elected school boards to consolidate if desired.
WESTSIDE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS SUPPORTS A SCHOOL FINANCE MODEL THAT IS PREDICTABLE AND SUSTAINABLE WIITHOUT LIMITING THE CURRENT LEVY AUTHORITY.
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Nebraska ranks 49th (next to last) in the country in percentage of state funding for funding K-12 education.
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Westside supports efforts to bring more state funding to the K-12 state aid formula.
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The Legislature often changes the state formula annually to adapt to the state fiscal
outlook. This leads to school district budget unpredictability.
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Budget unpredictability undermines a school district’s ability for long-term planning.
WESTSIDE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS SUPPORTS THE CURRENT NET OPTION ASPECT IN THE STATE'S NET FORMULA
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Net option funding is critical for Westside to educate all students desiring to attend Westside Community Schools.
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Host districts of net option students do not receive the benefit of the property tax authority associated with those students.
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Net option funding allows students many choices of which school to attend – without net option funding, students would lose that choice.
WESTSIDE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS OPPOSES FUNDING TO ANY ENTITIES NOT SUBJECT TO THE SAME ACCOUNTABILITY AND STANDARDS AS NEBRASKA PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
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State funding to Nebraska K-12 public schools is already at a low level.
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Any new funding directed at K-12 education should go to the underfunded public education system.
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The State should not seek to shrink the amount of dollars available for school funding, via tax credits or vouchers, to incentivize an alternative K-12 system that is not similarly accountable to the State as are public K-12 schools.
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Any K-12 entity receiving public dollars, or benefitting from the state foregoing tax revenue, should be subject to the same requirements of public-school districts.
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Students are already afforded school choice today because of the net option program.