LINCOLN- Gov. Pete Ricketts’ proposal for spending $1.04 billion in federal pandemic relief funding would send money to a broad range of initiatives. And, in a hearing that lasted nearly eight hours Tuesday, groups that would benefit from his ideas praised the plan.

It was the causes that wouldn’t get funding — or at least enough of it — that fueled some objections at the Appropriations Committee's hearing, including the state's public schools and areas of Omaha with large populations of Black and Latino residents.

Tim Royers with the Nebraska State Education Association and others expressed concerns about the funding actually delivering support for students.

“The question that we need to ask ourselves today is this: How are we making sure that students are receiving additional support services on top of their regular schooling?” said Royers, a former Nebraska teacher of the year.

State Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard asked Royers if he thought a child could be better off in a private school than a public school, and Royers acknowledged that could be the case.

“I’ll tell you right now, public schools are not the answer for every child,” Erdman said.

But Royers and other testifiers urged the committee to instead send funding toward school psychologists and speech-language pathologists, third parties that provide support via school programming, after-school programming, child care, summer school, retention measures for teachers and school counselors, incentive pay for mental and behavioral health professionals, school-based health clinics, tuition credits for teachers and more.

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