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Legislative Update

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LEGISLATIVE UPDATE -- MARCH 12, 2010


The days for law-making are longer, fewer in number, and priority bills begin to move.



URGENT! TUITION REIMBURSEMENT: LB1071, which provides tuition reimbursement for teachers in graduate degree-granting programs, is scheduled for General File debate on Friday, March 12, 2010, and is designated as an Education Committee priority bill. The dilemma of timing remains because the State Board of Education must wait until 30 days after a bill is signed into law to proceed with a public hearing on a rule change. In brief, LB1071 needs the Governor's signature no later than Friday, April 2, 2010, in order for the State Board to take action at their meeting scheduled for May 4-5, 2010. The State Board does not meet in June 2010, which makes the timing very critical.


LB1071 would also change the state aid certification date from Feb. 1, 2011, to April 1, 2011, and to March 1 in years thereafter.



ACTION REQUESTED: Please contact Speaker Mike Flood (mflood@leg.ne.gov), and your senator, to express support for LB1071 and the urgent need to get it to the Governor's desk before April 2, 2010, thus allowing the tuition reimbursement program to be available to teachers wanting to take Summer 2010 courses.



STATE AID: The Nebraska Department of Education has re-calculated and certified school district state aid and allowable budget growth for 2010-11. Overall, state aid increased $16 million for next year. There are some sizeable swings in aid for many districts because of the formula changes made in the special session, the new property valuations, and formula needs data. Many schools will be depending on property valuation growth, especially in rural areas, for revenue increases in the coming year.


For more information about your school go to: http://ess.nde.state.ne.us/SchoolFinance/StateAid/Default.htm


ACTION REQUESTED: Please contact the Appropriations Committee members and thank them for supporting the increase in state aid.



CONTINUE STATE CONTRIBUTION TO RETIREMENT FUNDS: Sen. Jeremy Nordquist's LB899, which helps ensure security of the state retirement system for both active and retired teachers, was sent to General File as part of an amendment to LB950, a Retirement Committee priority bill. LB899 extends the sunset on the $6.9 million annual state contribution to the purchasing power adjustment to the school employees, judges and state patrol retirement funds to June 30, 2013.


ACTION REQUESTED: Please contact Retirement Committee members and thank them for supporting the LB899 amendment to LB950 and sending it to the full Legislature.



CREATE TEACHER PERFORMANCE PAY FUND: Education Committee amendments and an amendment introduced by Sen. Adams on LB1014, Sen. Haar's priority bill, have received several hours of general file debate. The Teacher Performance Pay Fund would use revenue generated from wind and solar energy leases to improve Nebraska teacher salaries. Fund disbursement to school districts is scheduled to begin in 2016. The funds are to serve as a supplement to the salary schedules provided for in local collective bargaining agreements. Performance pay criteria, measurements and pay amounts are mandatory topics of local school district and association collective bargaining.


Senators Fischer, Louden, Hansen and Utter raised objections to the bill during debate on Wednesday, March 11, 2010. Sen. Fischer has agreed to an amendment that addresses those concerns by capping the fund at $21 million and requiring that 75 percent of Nebraska school districts have performance pay plans in collective bargaining agreements by June 30, 2020, or the fund will sunset.


LB1014 gives local school districts and local associations time to craft a supplemental performance pay plan that works for their district, recognizing that every district may be a bit different based on its individual needs. While the fund builds slowly, it creates a needed incentive for local districts and associations to help boost teacher compensation. Nebraska is currently ranked 42nd in the nation in average salary for teachers.


The NEA Collective Bargaining and Member Advocacy published a policy brief on alternative compensation, http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/PB20_AlternativeComp2.pdf, which provides helpful background to this issue.



ACTION REQUESTED: Contact your state senator to urge passage of LB1014.



REDUCTION IN REQUIRED SIGNATURES FOR PETITION INITIATIVES: LR300CA (Sen. John Nelson) was rejected by the Legislature on March 11, 2010. The proposal would have reduced the number of petition signatures needed to place a statutory or Constitutional initiative on the ballot. NSEA actively opposed LR300CA because out-of-state and special interest groups would have been able to buy their way onto the Nebraska ballot for less than $50,000.


Previous hearings, interim studies and court cases have identified significant fraud in the signature-gathering phase of the petition process. NSEA is concerned by the deceptive and illicit practices used by some petition circulators and their sponsors in order to change Nebraska State Statutes or the Nebraska Constitution.


KINDERGARTEN ELIGIBILITY AGE: LB1006, an Education Committee priority bill, was approved by the Legislature on March 11, 2010. LB1006 moves the kindergarten eligibility age date from October 15 to July 31. The bill would take effective for the 2012-13 school year. School districts can still provide parents or guardians the opportunity to have their child tested for acceptance into kindergarten if the age of their child falls close to July 31. NSEA supported LB1006.

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