Nebraska Farmers Union Board
of Directors Vote to Support Petition Drives
Lincoln, NE. At
their recent summer board meeting, the Nebraska Farmers Union Board of
Directors voted to support and endorse two related citizen initiative petition
drives currently being organized in response to the passage of LB126. The NEFU Board of Directors had previously
passed a resolution of strong opposition to LB126 at their January Board of
Directors meeting.
One petition drive would gather the necessary signatures to
place the repeal of LB126 before voters.
The second petition would place a proposed Constitutional Amendment on
the ballot that would require a majority vote of local residents before a
school district could be closed. If the necessary signatures are gathered, both
issues would be placed on the 2006 fall election ballot for voter approval.
Farmers Union unsuccessfully fought against the passage of
LB126 in the past legislative session, which the Nebraska Legislature passed
into law over the veto of Governor Heineman.
The Nebraska Farmers Union Board of Directors were extremely concerned
that LB126 was simply the first step in an ongoing misguided agenda of state
mandated forced school consolidation.
“Next year, Sen. Ron Raikes, Chairman of the Education
Committee will be back with his LB129, that was made an Education Committee
Priority Bill that will clearly punish small rural schools by reducing state
aid for those schools with fewer than 390 students. Instead of fixing the inequities in the state aid to education
formula that unfairly penalize rural schools, Sen. Raikes and a majority of the
Education Committee seem intent on moving forward with a heavy handed, top
down, state mandated agenda of forced school consolidation that ignores the
judgment of local school district taxpayers and parents,” said NEFU President
John Hansen.
“Our NEFU Board of Directors did not believe that LB126
would either improve the quality of instruction for students or save taxpayers
money. The support of the two petition
drives is consistent with the grassroots developed and approved NEFU state
policy on education and local control adopted at our last state convention,”
said Hansen.
The NEFU Board called on all Nebraska citizens who believe
that local school district patrons should have the authority to decide the fate
of their own school districts to help circulate petitions. “The principle of local control holds true
for all citizens, regardless of where they live, or the size of their
community. The Legislature made a
serious public policy mistake, and it is up to us citizens to fix the horrible
mistake they made. We need to send the
Legislature a clear message that citizens support the principle of local
control, and we want our views and judgment respected,” Hansen concluded.
Nebraska Farmers Union is the state’s second largest and oldest general farm organization representing over 4,500 farm and ranch families and the rural communities they live in. The mission of Nebraska Farmers Union is to improve the economic well-being and quality of life of family farmers and ranchers, and the rural communities they live in.
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