Letter to the Editor

Rolled again

Thursday, July 7, 2005

Dear Editor,

I am an ex McCook resident with a lot of relationships in Southwest Nebraska. Originally from Wilsonville. I now live in Lake Maloney District 44 in Lincoln County.

When LB126, the school consolidation bill was passed, effectively eliminating Class I schools, it seems we had little help from K-12 districts. Now it is their turn.

Every one seemed to forget or were not informed that LB129 was introduced and carried over till next year. This will have a profound effect on Southwest Nebraska. The bill as written will reduce state funding for K-12 districts with less than a magic 390 students. Making mergers mandated.

Some of the districts that will not meet the 390 students are Hitchcock County Unified, Dundy County Public, Hayes County Schools, Arapahoe Public, Cambridge, Eustis-Farnam, Medicine Valley, Maywood, Elwood Public, Overton, Sumner-Eddyville,Wallace, Sutherland, Maxwell, and Brady according to the Nebraska Department of Education web site.

I do not know what Sen. Baker's position on LB 129 is but he sponsored LB 126 to eliminate Class 1 districts, so I would think he would favor further consolidation.

We need to put a stop to this consolidation while there are still a few small towns left in Nebraska. Western Nebraska got rolled again by the eastern part of the state on LB126.

It will be interesting to see how the petition drive to stop LB126 from being implemented and to put the issue on the ballot comes out. Maybe the K-12 districts will now help put a stop to this foolishness. Class I schools did not get to vote on consolidation. We should all get to vote on school mergers. Voting is the American way.