Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor:

Our public school system is the heart and soul of our community. Not only are we providing the tools for all students to have productive and successful lives, but everyone benefits from an educated citizenry. Educational attainment is strongly linked to economic growth and development in our local communities, state and nation.

So I am very concerned about the lack of funding from our state for public education in Kimball. Nebraska ranks 49th in the nation in state support of education. All of the surrounding states, which include South Dakota, Colorado, Missouri, Iowa, Wyoming, and Kansas, provide more state dollars than Nebraska to their public schools.

In Virginia, I was superintendent of a district with similar demographics and poverty rates as Kimball. We received about 75% of our school budget from the state while the local property owners provided about 25% through their property taxes. Appallingly, Kimball Public Schools receive only 6% from the state while the local property owners provide about 77% of the school budget through their property taxes. The remaining 17% comes from Federal sources.

Also, only four states have no role in helping local school districts pay for school facilities. Those four states that provide no funds for school buildings are: Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

Nebraska is draining local resources through state income taxes but returning almost nothing to our local schools. This places our School Board in a very difficult situation. They have no choice but to turn to property taxes to operate and maintain our schools.

I urge you to contact your state senators and your governor to request more state funding for local schools and to relieve some of the property tax burden from our local citizens.

Thank you,

Dr. Elizabeth Owens, Superintendent of Kimball Public Schools