October 24, 2005

Education is the great equalizer. It is an opportunity that each of us, regardless of our income, background, ethnicity or limitations, receives. Increasing demands on schools require teachers and administrators to do more than they ever have, and Nebraska’s schools have performed admirably. However, we cannot rest on the impressive list of laurels that our public and private schools have compiled.

Competition is coming no longer from Iowa, Colorado or Kansas, but from India, China and other emerging economic powers. Our lives have benefited from the most technologically advanced society the world has ever known, and our children are being challenged to harness its opportunities.

In Nebraska, we value the independence of our educational system. Yet to help schools succeed in this changing environment, we need to engage more of our leaders in discussions about education policy.

Sen. Ron Raikes and I worked with Education Commissioner Doug Christensen and University of Nebraska President J.B. Milliken to form a new leadership group to facilitate and encourage an exchange of education policy ideas among state and education policymakers, as well as leaders in the business community.

The new Nebraska Education Leadership Council also includes one person from each Congressional district to represent parents and the private sector. The council is new, but will work alongside an existing program begun by the University of Nebraska and the Department of Education in 1998.

Our leadership council will work hand-in-hand with the P-16 Steering Committee, a larger group of people from the education community chaired by Commissioner Christensen and President Milliken.

The reformulated P-16 group incorporates the advocates of teachers, administrators and school board presidents, and it added three important new voices, the NAACP, the Mexican-American Commission and the Indian Commission. Also new to this effort are several state agencies, including the Nebraska Health and Human Services System, the Nebraska Department of Economic Development and the State Budget Office.

The new leadership council will focus on broader policy discussions and how law and regulations might affect meaningful change, the P-16 committee will serve as a form of checks and balances, as well as an in-the-trenches work group to examine, refute or encourage the policy changes discussed by the leadership council.

The P-16 committee will also maintain the freedom to send policy ideas to members of the leadership council for consideration and to discuss its own issues of concern. The reasoning behind the new group is simple: This council will allow policymakers who can affect change to collaborate and engage more directly in discussions on the broad goals that can be addressed in law. Its focus will range from early childhood education, even before preschool, to helping smooth the transition from schooling to the workforce.

By also engaging the private sector in these discussions, we will hear specifically about the skills employers need, the deficiencies they see, and our council will hear some positive feedback about the workers our schools educate.

We will seek realistic solutions to the challenges of educating children living in poverty, increasing college-going rates, encouraging greater parental involvement, and strengthening the academic rigor of coursework, to name a few. Ultimately, the Nebraska Education Leadership Council is an attempt to affect policy for the betterment of our schools, communities and, most importantly, our young people.