Education funding study advanced

The use of lottery dollars for education funding would be studied under a bill given first-round approval April 9.

LB497, introduced by Cedar Rapids Sen. Kate Sullivan, would require the Education Committee to conduct a study of potential uses of lottery funds dedicated to education. With the termination of the Education Innovation Fund and Nebraska Opportunity Grant Fund in 2016, Sullivan said, the time to study the state’s priorities is now.

“We need to look at all areas that we fund to see how the funds are currently being used,” she said. “We need to review how we spend the state’s dollars to make sure they’re being spent according to the priorities we’ve set.”

The committee would submit findings to the Legislature by Dec. 31, which would include:
• educational priorities of the state;
• types of educational activities that would be better funded by state lottery funds than state general funds;
• whether state lottery funds should be used for significant projects requiring temporary funding or to sustain ongoing activities; and
• whether periodic reviews of lottery fund use for education should be scheduled.

An Education Committee amendment, adopted 32-0, would create the Nebraska Education Improvement Fund. All lottery proceeds earmarked for education after July 1, 2016, would be directed to the fund. Additionally, all funds remaining in the Education Innovation Fund and Nebraska Opportunity Grant Fund on June 30, 2016, would be directed to the fund.

Norfolk Sen. Jim Scheer supported the bill, saying the upcoming sunset of current educational funding mechanisms provides a rare opportunity.

“It’s not often that we get an opportunity to make sure existing legislation is doing what it was designed to do,” he said. “This study is an appropriate way to look at the use of education funds in the future.

Senators advanced the bill on a 34-0 vote.