March 9, 2025
Sen. Dave Murman, Chairperson
Sen. Margo Juarez
Sen. Jana Hughes, Vice Chairperson
Sen. Dan Lonowski
Sen. Danielle Conrad
Sen. Glen Meyer
Sen. Megan Hunt
Sen. Rita Sanders
Chair Murman and members of the Education Committee:
The Lincoln Public Schools opposes LB652, proposed by Senator Hansen, which would terminate the Board of Educational Lands and Funds. The Board of Educational Lands and Funds is the longest standing and most reliably sustained source of apportionment funding back to public schools and has the strongest historical precedent. Its origins are through the Enabling Act of Congress passed April 19, 1864. With Nebraska’s inception and induction to statehood, the federal government granted these measures for the support of Nebraska’s common schools.
As Kelly Sudbeck, the CEO and Executive Secretary of the Board has noted, “The Board and its staff are firmly committed to maximizing the income and preserving the assets of the School Trust for the benefit of Nebraska and its citizens. In pursuit of these goals, every effort is made to manage and conduct the Board’s business operations” to ensure profitability and sustainability of this revenue supporting agriculture and schools. As the Sonoran Institute has noted, “Educational trust lands revenues generally play a consistent role in the overall funding of public schools in Nebraska.”
The Board of Educational Lands and Funds is the longest standing means of providing apportionment funding to address local needs based on census data. The Board of Educational Lands and Funds is governed transparently and provides publicly accessible information for citizens at belf.nebraska.gov, and the Nebraska Department of Education SFOS division annually publishes final apportionment allocation and payment for all districts. LPS opposes the advancement of LB652 as an unnecessary and ill-advised divergence from longstanding and sustainable supports to public schools.
Sincerely,
Dr. John Skretta
Interim Superintendent
Lincoln Public Schools
