In Nebraska, we have a constitutional obligation to provide education for our children in the common (public) schools. It is an obligation we take very seriously. 

And in that obligation, we recognize that we need to provide a variety of learning environments for our students and that parents should have a say in determining that environment. That is why, for more than 30 years, Nebraska’s option enrollment program has enabled tens of thousands of students to choose the public school that best fits their needs, even if that school is not the one right down the street. 

In fact, in my home community of Omaha, in Millard, roughly one in four students choose to attend a public school that is not their neighborhood school.

Proponents of measures that would divert public resources to private schools often claim that public school advocates do not believe in choice. Nothing could be further from the truth. We believe that if a school is funded through public dollars, it should be publicly accountable and should follow the most important belief we hold: that we have the privilege of educating all students who come through our doors. 

During the debate on the first version of the “Opportunity Scholarships” voucher bill, an amendment was proposed to ensure that was the case. The amendment simply required that any private school receiving a publicly funded scholarship would be prohibited from discriminating against students based on elements like race, religion, sexual orientation or disability. 

Supporters of the voucher bill rejected that amendment.   

We strongly believe that education policies should meet the needs of all students. Voucher supporters do not agree. Across the river, in Iowa, we are watching in real time as that state’s school voucher program becomes a massive subsidy for the wealthy. 

Only 12% of the applicants to Iowa’s program had previously attended a public school.  The average income of a family applying for a voucher to move from a public school to a private school in Iowa is more than $128,000.  Perhaps most concerning is the fact that since Iowa passed its voucher program, private school tuition has increased by 25%.

Nebraska needs to heed the warnings from other states. The research has been comprehensive and clear: Large-scale voucher programs do not improve academic outcomes. In fact, in a comprehensive report that was done by Indiana University, after reviewing more than a dozen studies, the report concluded that, “As programs grew in size, the results turned negative, often to a remarkably large degree virtually unrivaled in education research.” 

These programs not only fail to improve academic outcomes, they also drain a disproportionate number of resources away from our public schools. The Nebraska Legislative Fiscal Office noted that the voucher programs proposed would not reduce public school expenses. 

In fact, depending on who takes these vouchers, the proposed programs could result in a loss of millions of dollars of state aid to public schools. Sadly, that isn’t a hypothetical. In Arizona, its voucher program has ballooned to nearly $1 billion in its cost to taxpayers — while the Isaac Public School District does not even have enough money to pay its staff.

Importantly, the people of Nebraska saw the failings in these other states and reinforced their commitment to a school system that welcomes all students, regardless of their background. In November, hundreds of thousands of Nebraskans voted to support their public schools and to reject vouchers for the fourth time in our state’s history. 

The result was consistent across the state, with a majority in 82 of Nebraska’s 93 counties voting to repeal the voucher bill. Our lawmakers in the Legislature should respect the will of the people and acknowledge that Nebraskans do not support using public funds to pay for private schools.

While the evidence may be clear that a voucher program will not improve the educational outcomes in Nebraska, that does not mean we are content with the current state of education. We believe we need to and can improve on how we serve our students in our public schools. 

Yet research, as well as our fundamental belief in public education, leads us to know that voucher schemes are not the solution. We have proposed several measures in this Legislative session that would help address our state’s ongoing teacher retention challenges. 

We are also supporting measures like Sen. Margo Juarez’s Legislative Bill 161, which would increase funding for public preschool. States that have demonstrated the greatest progress in improving math and reading outcomes for students are those that have committed to expanding preschool access. 

We want every child in our state to have the best possible learning environment. The evidence is clear that vouchers are not the answer. The answer is strengthening our Nebraska public schools.

Tim Royers, a public school educator and Nebraska’s 2016 Teacher of the Year, is president of the Nebraska State Education Association. He taught in the Millard Public Schools.