Nebraska education panel gets taste of emotion that’s fueling health-standards debate | Politics

A state panel bought a taste Tuesday of the fervour and emotion that’s been burning throughout Nebraska over well being education requirements for colleges.

Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston pitched to lawmakers on the Education Committee her invoice that might strip the Nebraska State Board of Education of the facility to jot down the requirements.

Albrecht stated the Legislature must ship a “clear and concise” message to the board.

“Sadly, the public trust has been broken, and now it’s time for the Legislature to step in and restore that trust,” she stated.

The committee members took testimony for about 2½ hours, with invoice supporters and opponents taking turns. Committee members requested few questions in the course of the listening to.

The state’s requirements could be voluntary for districts to undertake.

Much of the testimony targeted on whether or not colleges ought to have complete and inclusive well being requirements — not on the query of whether or not the state education board ought to have the facility to jot down them.

Zoe Miller, a testifier from Omaha, stated complete well being education in colleges would assist forestall suicide, sexual violence, excessive sexually transmitted an infection charges and excessive teen being pregnant charges.

“Our health education curriculum is in dire need of reworking to be more inclusive and honest, meaning we can’t just cater our health education to cisgender White men,” Miller stated.

Jo Giles, govt director of the Women’s Fund of Omaha, stated all younger folks deserve entry to finish, sincere and correct info to make knowledgeable selections about their well being and their futures.

“Omitting complete health information for young people leaves a devastating hole in their education and does not prepare them for life,” she stated.

She stated 57% of Nebraska youngsters have intercourse earlier than they graduate from highschool however solely 8% have ever been examined for a sexually transmitted illness.

Jill Greenquist of Omaha, a spouse and mom who favored the invoice, stated she testified to guard her youngsters “from activist individuals and entities who believe their way of educating children should go beyond the standards of math, science, language arts and social studies.”

“I’m disappointed,” she stated, “that the Nebraska Department of Education cannot be trusted with establishing educational standards that are focused on the essentials.”

Albrecht appealed to the committee to advance the invoice, LB 768, for consideration by the entire Legislature.

The invoice would limit the board’s authority for creating new requirements to the core educational topic areas already licensed below state regulation: studying, writing, math, science and social research.

The state at present has no statewide well being education requirements. They are developed by native districts.

In addition, the invoice would scrub the phrase complete from a pair of passages of Nebraska regulation coping with well being education in colleges.

Under the invoice, native authorities would nonetheless be directed to supply for instructing public college college students in a well being education program, however the regulation would now not outline it as complete.

The board is just not required below state regulation to create well being requirements. If permitted, the requirements would solely be beneficial for adoption by native districts.

The board has beforehand permitted related beneficial requirements, past these required by regulation, within the areas of high quality arts, bodily education, world language and profession and technical education.

Albrecht stated lawmakers have a historical past of weighing in on main education points, for example passing payments on studying and civics education, drug and alcohol abuse and suicide prevention, she stated.

“We, as legislators, decide the big stuff, the big stuff that’s going to make a difference in the fabric of education in the state of Nebraska,” she stated.

Albrecht inspired the committee members to learn what was within the first and second drafts of the requirements produced by a staff of writers and the Nebraska Department of Education.

“Take the first draft and take the second draft, and tell me that you’re OK with this being in our school system,” she stated.

The controversial requirements have been on ice since Sept. 3 when board members, going through a groundswell of opposition, postponed their growth indefinitely. The board voted 7-1 earlier this month to oppose Albrecht’s invoice.

Board member Maureen Nickels on Tuesday stated small college districts lack the wherewithal to jot down their very own requirements, they usually depend on the state for assist.

Nickels stated well being requirements are “the only set of standards that we have not put out yet at the Department of Education, and I sincerely believe it’s important for us to have standards by the state for every curriculum out there, for every course that we teach out there.”