LINCOLN- In a Twitter post meant to highlight the 31 Nebraska high schoolers who achieved a perfect score on the ACT test this year, Gov. Jim Pillen reignited a debate surrounding the flight of Nebraska's top students, as well as prompted criticism for acknowledging that Nebraska's "best and brightest" students are headed elsewhere for higher education. In the post, Pillen also implored the students "to return and utilize your talents here" after college.

Pillen's office also drew heat after it turned off the ability for the public to reply to the post, limiting debate on the "brain drain" issue that was reignited by the post and that has plagued Nebraska for over a decade. Some, utilizing the "quote tweet" function to reply to the post, argued that a political figure such as Pillen turning off direct replies on a post was censorship and infringed upon citizens' First Amendment rights. Despite this, Rose Godinez, legal director of the ACLU of Nebraska, said such a move sits in a "legal gray area."

"It doesn't promote transparency or accessibility to the top public official in the state," said Godinez, "They should be allowing comments and they should be welcoming the chance to hear from Nebraskans in this digital public square, essentially." According to Laura Strimple, a spokeswoman for the governor, a recent staffing change and a level of miscommunication prompted the replies to be shut off. After being questioned by several sources, the ability to reply to the post was restored, and the renewed attention to the issue of brain drain in Nebraska persisted.

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