Nebraska voters rejected a law spending public funds on private school tuition. (Streter Lecka/Getty Images)

Nebraskans decided a few weeks ago that public education dollars should fund public education…and only public education. You can ignore the “well, duh.” Without two petition drives, a strong campaign, and Nebraskans doing the right thing, the issue at hand – House Bill 1402 – could very well have started using taxpayer dollars for school tuition private next fall.

The decision to repeal LB 1402, which provided public funds for private scholarships, was quite strong and clear. Nearly six in 10 Nebraskans who voted said no to the idea, initially presented to the Legislature in a different form, then rewritten at the last minute in a fit of presto-changeo political decision-making. Nonetheless, LB 1402 only achieved a passing grade in 11 of the state’s 93 counties.

The result was the right decision on an idea that was wrong from the start.

Those who sought signatures to get the measure on the ballot, knocked on doors to convince their neighbors, wrote checks to pay for their efforts, and generally campaigned for the repeal of LB 1402 are entitled at a small party. Well done.

Now it’s time to move on. Repealing LB 1402 does nothing to solve the problem of underperforming schools that deprive students of a quality education and diminish the state’s record, which is one of the best public school systems in the country. Yes, the law was the wrong solution, but let’s not forget that many Nebraska parents do indeed want better educational opportunities for their children.

As the Legislature approaches its next session, it would be wise to consider the election results: Nebraskans do not want public funds to support private school tuition. But no one wants this state’s schoolchildren to get less than the best we have.

For starters, even though the culture wars waged in classrooms and at school board meetings make headlines and generate drama, they do nothing to improve teaching. We need to spend less time and energy worrying about the titles of books that Johnny can check out in the school library or borrow from his class and more time and energy (and yes, maybe even more of money) to the fact that he might not do it. be able to read them anyway.

While we’re at it, we should advocate less for parental rights in public schools because they already have those rights. We can also start insisting that schools teach all of American history and stop whitewashing its most questionable chapters. We owe our children the truth, just as they owe theirs.

Surely we can also find workable solutions that allow trans and gay children to receive a well-rounded education while being treated with respect and dignity, just as we promise to do for all children, from the mission statements of local school districts up to the oaths. tenure of state senators and state school board members. And for Mike’s sake, can we stop with the conspiracy theories? Schools performing gender reassignment surgeries or students getting behind their backpacks because they read in a book that Sally has two moms? (I still wince at the memory of the cat litter box in schools.)

Let’s use the repeal of LB 1402 as a starting point to make the state’s public schools the envy of the rest of the country.

The election also confirmed the burgeoning power of Nebraska’s blue dot in the 2nd Congressional District, which won solidly on the Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. And it wasn’t even really close.

As promised by Republicans in the “officially nonpartisan” Nebraska Legislature and detailed in this space weeks before the election, the blue dot may soon be covered in a thick red blanket. Several state senators have said they will introduce legislation aimed at making Nebraska a winner-take-all state, creating a difficult calculus for the blue dot when mixed with the crimson in the rest of the state .

For those of us who question the current validity of the Electoral College – are the votes of six states louder than the rest of us? — the blue dot presents a bittersweet dilemma. As much as I love the resilience, the passion, and, more recently, the regularity of a bright azure patch on a red field, my dispute with the Electoral College continues. Deleting it, however, would erase the blue dot. Of course, by the end of the next session of the Nebraska Legislature, the blue dot could become moot…and mute.

If that were to happen, it would behoove us to offer the history of the blue dot to the Nebraska history curriculum in our ever-improving and ever-public schools.