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LB390 - Require each school board to adopt a policy relating to access by a parent, guardian, or educational decisionmaker to certain school library information

The Stated Intent: LB390 supports transparency by requiring school libraries to publish an online catalog of books in the district’s library and provides the opportunity for a parent of a student to be notified of the materials checked out by their child.

So what is LB390 all about?

LB390 would require each school board to adopt a policy relating to the rights of a parent, guardian, or educational decisionmaker to access school library materials.

The policy would:

1. Require the creation of an online catalog of all book in the school district's library which shall be accessible for viewing by a parent or guardian of a student attending the school district
2. Provide the opportunity for a parent to be notified when the student checks out a book from the school library. The notification would include

• the title of the book,
• the author, and
• the date the book was checked out.

Does it seem strange to you that our legislature would have to create a law requiring the school districts to allow parents, guardians, or educational decisionmakers to be involved in their child's education? What is going on?

Parent's roll in education

What is the parent's roll in the education of their children? Has the roll changed through the years? Like so many things, the answer to that first question can be found in scripture. Got Questions provides answers in their summary of "What does the Bible say about raising children?". They conclude with this:

Children are a “heritage from the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). He places them in families and gives parents guidance in how they are to be raised. The goal of good parenting is to produce wise children who know and honor God with their lives. Proverbs 23:24 shows the end result of raising children according to God’s plan: “The father of godly children has cause for joy. What a pleasure to have children who are wise” (NLT).

Based on this, we know God blesses us with children and our roll as parents is to raise children in wisdom and knowledge. To do that, a parent has to know what their child is consuming. Are they consuming mindless garbage, or worse yet, explicit material that does not align with God's plan? It has been well documented that our school libraries are filled with both of those things. For a refresher, you can reference Minuteman Alert "NE Library Commission, what's the history and harm?".

Should we be surprised?

Should we be surprise that our legislature has to create laws so parents can be involved in their child's education?

Not according to Dr. Thomas Sowell. In a 12 minute 1993 C-SPAN discussion he talked about how modern education's goal is alienating the child from his parents. It is interesting that Dr. Sowell recognized this over 30 years ago while so many in America didn't see this until covid and the lock down of schools.

It will be interesting to see how many school organizations oppose this bill.

Changing rolls

Has parents involvement in schools changed? The answer appears to be yes. For those who have been out a school for 30, 40, and 50 years, your parent's involvement was most likely "don't get in trouble and get good grades". The last thing parents wanted then was having the school call because their child was either causing trouble or failing. Now you have parents who are either completely out of the picture or are doing their child's homework. All of this while student proficiencies continue to decline. Have you seen the latest Nations Report Card?

Many like to point to covid as the reason for the decline, see World Herald article "Nebraska students' test scores show continued decline in reading proficiency". The fact is these declines started years before covid.

Who is to blame for this decline - parents or our public schools? Dr. Sowell has thoughts on this as well which he shares in the short clip "Who is to blame? Parents vs Schools & Teachers".

Let YOUR senator(s) know:

• Parents have the duty and right to be involved in their child's education. This responsibility was assigned to them from the Creator and if done well, will generate innumerous blessings for the parents and this state.

• Our libraries are filled with materials that do not support a child's growth in both wisdom and knowledge. If the schools will not remove these materials, then parents should have the right to keep their children from them as well as knowing if their child is checking these materials out.

• It's clear our public education is failing our kids. Doing the same old thing will get the same old results - failing proficiencies.

Your voice is powerful, make it heard on LB390. The committee hearing is scheduled for Monday, February 3, 2025. NFFV recommends you "Support" this bill.

How to be heard? Here are three ways:

• Most Effective: Testify in person. Going to the Committee hearing and sharing YOUR story with committee member Senators is very impactful. For first time in person testifier here are some helpful hints. 
• Effective: Submit written testimony. If you can't be there in person then submit written testimony. Not sure how to do that, click here. Note: The deadline to submit and verify a comment for the hearing record for LB390 is Monday, February 3, 2025 at 8:00 AM Central Time.
• Least Effective: Email your position letter to the Committee Senators and CC your own Senator. For a listing of the Education Committee Senators click here. Note: emails should be sent by noon, the business day before the committee hearing. It's not likely these emails will be included in official hearing minutes, however, there is a better chance Committee Senators will see your comments. You can request they be added to meeting minutes in your email to Committee Senators.

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