In a Nebraska legislative session better known for its sound and fury than for a lot of substantive accomplishments, at least one bill stands as an exception.

At the eleventh hour, the Legislature voted to create a School Financing Review Commission, a bill sponsored by Sen. Jana Hughes and supported by 48 of the 49 state senators – with one senator excused and not voting.

A commission may not seem like a big deal, but it can and should have wide-ranging impact.

For several decades, our governors have declared and our legislators have generally echoed the notion that property taxes in Nebraska are too high, out of balance with the state’s overall tax level. Gov. Jim Pillen has recently said — yet again — that lower property taxes are his biggest priority.

As a result, the Legislature has been poking around at the margins, trying to effect change without ever getting at the biggest underlying problem: In our state, property taxes are the primary funding mechanism for our schools.

School districts generally receive more than half of their funding from local property taxes, and about half of the taxes an individual Nebraskans pays are from taxes on property.

Maybe there’s another way. But efforts to rebalance our three-legged taxation stool among income, sales and property taxes are not getting very far unless we take a long look at school funding.

Is our system the most efficient and effective way to support our fundamental responsibility to educate all Nebraskans? Is it the fairest way – both to taxpayers and to our children?

The last commission to review school finance met in 1988-89, and their work resulted in a school finance formula that started out well but was raided and distorted periodically since. Not to mention that circumstances change over 35 years.

This new effort to study and understand these fundamental questions in the light of today’s realities should move us toward outcomes that will be better understood, farther reaching and more substantive than what legislators have dinked around with in recent years.

Please say thank you to senators for supporting this. Then keep an eye on how the commission develops and what it ultimately recommends. This study should not be allowed to wither on the vine or get buried in a political graveyard.

This may not be flashy legislation, but following it through to a successful and substantive end could be one of the best things our government has done for us lately.

Charlyne Berens, of Lincoln, is a professor emeritus at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications. This story was published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. Read the original article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/07/09/studying-nebraskas-school-funding-formula-a-good-idea/

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