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Committee hears cleanup bill to remove CEP multiplier from school funding formula
Summary
An Education Committee bill would remove the 1.1 multiplier applied to Community Eligibility Program (CEP) counts in the TEOSA school funding formula after a Department of Education analysis; advocates said the change right‑sizes state aid and preserves CEP participation.
A short, technical bill, LB142, drew proponent testimony explaining why the committee should remove a 1.1 multiplier from the Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act (TEOSA) calculation for Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) participation.
Matthew Howe, legislative aide introducing the bill for Senator Janet Hughes, explained CEP allows high‑poverty schools to provide free breakfasts and lunches to all students by using direct certification (SNAP, Medicaid, TANF) rather than individual free‑and‑reduced applications. LB142 removes a TEOSA adjustment that multiplied CEP counts by 1.1 when converting CEP certification numbers into the poverty counts that feed the state needs calculation.
Eric Saviano, program manager for Food and Nutrition Access at Nebraska Appleseed, told the committee that the 1.1 multiplier was initially adopted to protect districts that switched to CEP from losing state aid. After an interim study (LR419) and a Department of Education analysis, Saviano said the multiplier is no longer needed because more timely federal data and improved methodology makes the adjustment unnecessary.
Saviano said removing the multiplier is a cleanup item intended to right‑size TEOSA calculations and avoid penalizing districts that adopt CEP. He and the committee emphasized CEP remains a federal USDA program; this change affects only how state TEOSA calculations treat CEP counts and would not change federal CEP eligibility criteria.
