Bill would remove community college association requirement

Community colleges no longer would be required to join an association under a bill heard by the Education Committee Jan. 28.

York Sen. Greg Adams introduced LB211 to finalize an agreement reached by the community college boards. Under the bill, joining an association of community colleges would be voluntary.

“This was something agreed upon when we were working on the funding formula, which we passed last year,” he said. “All this does is put it into statute.”

The bill strikes a provision requiring any meeting by a community college association to be conducted in accordance with the Open Meetings Act. Dennis Baack, executive director of the Nebraska Community College Association, addressed senators’ questions about the provision.

“Under the bill we would not be subject to the Open Meetings Act,” he said, “but we would certainly never preclude any member of the public from attending our meetings.”

Additionally, the bill would authorize the board of governors of any community college to use college funds to pay for association membership.

No one testified in opposition to the bill and the committee took no immediate action on it.