For Immediate Release June
3, 2005
Contact: John Hansen NEFU, 402-476-8815
or 402-580-8815
NEFU Praises Governor Heineman’s Veto of
LB126
Lincoln, NE. Nebraska Farmers Union (NEFU) praised Governor Heineman’s veto of LB126. “We asked the Governor to listen, and look at all the facts. We were extremely pleased that he did just that. It took courage on his part to veto LB126. The Governor stood with the rural education and farm organizations on this extremely important issue, and we deeply appreciate his courage and leadership,” said NEFU President John Hansen.
Farmers Union characterized the Legislature’s 32-16 override of Governor Heineman’s veto of LB126 as “a sad day for much of rural Nebraska, especially rural students and their parents. The little guys got picked on. LB126 will not reduce the cost of education, or improve the quality of education. LB126 will, unfortunately, reduce parental involvement in education, and choices for parents and students. The one size fits all advocates won, but many of our students lost,” said NEFU President John Hansen.
“Our organization works hard to get our rural constituents to do their job as citizens, which is to take an active interest in issues that impact them, get informed on those issues, and then get involved with their elected officials by sharing their opinions and information in a professional and appropriate way. On LB126, our rural constituents did their job as citizens, but found all too many rural senators voted against the overwhelming input of their rural constituents,” Hansen said.
By Farmers Union count, 13 state senators with rural or mostly rural districts, voted for the state mandated forced consolidation contained in LB126, and against the wishes of their own constituents. “Rural property taxpayers and parents are getting increasingly frustrated with rural Senators who are unwilling or unable to tackle the two obvious big picture problems facing rural education: too much reliance on property taxes to fund the costs of public education, and a fundamentally flawed state education formula that continues to hurt and damage rural schools. We got what we did not want or need, state mandated forced consolidation of Class I schools,” Hansen said. “Rural residents know that what really needs to be fixed to improve the quality of education, or the efficiency of delivering quality education did not get fixed with the passage of LB126.”
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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