An editorial written in the Kearney Hub mentions that most of the schools in Nebraska are located in farming and ranching communities who are forced to pay property taxes that they can’t afford anymore. A majority of the Nebraska school districts don’t receive equalization aid, which means they don’t receive a fair amount of state aid of schools.
Bigger schools are concerned with the growth and other challenges that they’re going to experience by losing state aid, but there are small schools who are receiving no state support. This is why some parents decide to move to different areas where hopefully their children can get a better education with better state support.
The Kearney area and surrounding smaller towns are affected by these tax cuts as well as bigger cities and states. The resources might be getting spread thin in bigger cities like Kearney, but in smaller towns possibly like Ravenna and Shelton the student numbers are shrinking. High property taxes are the reason for this and is causing the farming and ranching communities to be under stress.
Agriculture is Nebraska’s number one industry, but if the state continues to have high property taxes then it’s the farmers and ranchers that are going to be effected the most and the places that rely on them for their support.
I know this seems to be more of a state issue, but thinking of all the schools in the Kearney area and how they might be affected by this law if it gets passed. Bill LB974 would increase the state aid by $520 million throughout three years and would give every Nebraska school a share of the aid, which would hopefully make all schools less reliant on property taxes.
Instead of killing the bill, they hope the lawmakers will just tweak the bill and make improvements to get the bill passed. This bill will affect the children who are in school and the children in the future to be able to have a successful education without having to worry about funding.
Nebraska is known for always supporting their school systems, but sometimes they need a little extra help to make the education system a little more successful. If the LB974 bill doesn’t pass then there’s a high chance that all Nebraskas will take a huge loss. If the educators want to make a difference in and out of their classrooms then they need to support this bill.
I think we can all agree that all schools face different obstacles, but as long as students are getting their best education that’s the best outcome anyone can hope for. Passing bill LB974 would allow extra funding to help these students be successful all across the state of Nebraska. It would help improve the schools in the Kearney area to help them be more successful for our community.
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