Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Esu Core Services topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Educational service units warn decades of underfunding have left core services vulnerable; ask Appropriations Committee to restore formula increases
Summary
The Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council told legislators core services funding is 14% lower than in 2008–09 in real terms, urged restoration of statutory intent to grow core service funds and warned that cuts would shift costs to school districts and property taxpayers.
Laurie Ann Polk, CEO of the Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council, told the Appropriations Committee that Nebraska’s 17 Educational Service Units (ESUs) deliver statewide core services — staff development, instructional-material support, and technology infrastructure/distance learning — and that those services have been underfunded for years.
Polk reviewed ESU statutory history and funding mechanics, noting LB603 (2007) changed the funding formula and that a one-time correction in 2008–09 added about $4 million to align funding with intent. She said the statute contemplates an annual increase around 2% (intent language, 79-12410) but that the increase has rarely been honored: “In 24–25, ESU core funding is 14.31% less than it was in 08–09,” she told the committee.
Polk and other ESU witnesses explained the practical effects: many ESUs are at property-tax lid limits and would have to bill school districts or prompt districts to raise levies if state core-service dollars are reduced. Polk described services that would be at risk — literacy coaching, behavior intervention, cybersecurity supports, mental-health practitioners, and distance-learning capacity — and said for every $1 of state core-service funding ESUs turn it into roughly $4 of services for schools.
Committee members questioned statutory details, hold-harmless and sunset language previously removed from the formula, and what happens when ESUs reach levy lids. Polk said most ESUs are at their lid; absent state funding, ESUs would shift costs to school districts, which would either reallocate local dollars or raise levies. She urged the committee to consider restoring funding modestly to make up some of the long-term shortfall and preserve statewide services that are frequently contracted to ESUs.
The testimony included historical tables and county-level distributions showing uneven impacts among ESUs. Polk requested that the Appropriations Committee account for the statutory intent and the cost pressures ESUs face when finalizing state aid for education.
