OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Education is an issue almost every candidate in the metro is running on. Many mention strong public schools, safe schools and/or school choice.
Christy Armendariz, running in the Bennington area, wants to see school choice come to Nebraska.
“They should have the choice to get the best education they can possibly give. I would hate to be that frustrated parent that just has to send their kids, that they’re not thriving,” said Armendariz.
She's joined by many Republicans running for nonpartisan legislative seats this year. That includes the recently appointed Sen. Kathleen Kauth in Millard.
Kauth points to success in other states and says some kids simply fit better in a private school or smaller classrooms.
“Every kid is different. Not every school is going to work for every kid. This is not something we can mass produce,” said Kauth.
Efforts to get the ball rolling in Lincoln so far have stalled. That’s a bill, attempted multiple times, which would give tax credits to people who donate money for private school scholarships. The bill from past years would fully fund education.
Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, running for re-election this year, is one senator who blocked the bill.
“I think that if we want to have the best education for our children, we have to start first by investing in public education and until we have the best public schools in the country, we’re not doing our job,” said Cavanaugh.
Sen. Wendy DeBoer, running for re-election in northwest Omaha, called that bill a "voucher scheme" and said any school choice bill uses public dollars and that money has to come from somewhere.
“I don’t have a crystal ball down the road to tell you what taxes are going to be raised from this, but taxes are going to be raised if we’re spending more money; these kinds of programs cost money,” said DeBoer.
To be clear, Armendariz and Kauth — both of whom have strong chances of winning next month — say they would have voted for the scholarship bill and want to see true school choice in Nebraska.
“Just our dollars that we’re funneling to schools should be able to be funneled to the school that we want our children to go to,” said Armendariz.
“There are a million different ways to do it, but the fact that we’re so hesitant to start a conversation because it gets so ‘Well, you wanna destroy schools!'” said Kauth.
Both Democratic senators pointed out that Nebraska does allow students to opt-in to most school districts across the state.
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