Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom has monitored the local, state, and national test scores of students in the Omaha Public School District since 1999, correlating these test scores with the amount of tax revenue spent by the district on educating its students.
Since 1999, expenditures have
skyrocketed, consuming many more property tax dollars from district residents
and state tax dollars from all Nebraskans.
During this period, OPS test scores mostly have remained static or
dropped in relation to other state school district and national scores. The OPS reaction is to throw more money at
this embarrassing problem instead of altering its curriculum and cutting
wasteful, inefficient spending.
NTF has offered this school
board several times our suggestions and ideas for both fiscal and curricular
reform, but no school board member ever has accepted and used them,
though many other school districts have used the same to enhance student
test scores and improve curricular offerings.
We predict that OPS test
scores will continue to plummet along with its curriculum, driving more parents
out of the school district, taking their children and property tax dollars with
them. More parents will take advantage
of the option out process. While the
national No Child Left Behind initiative seeks to improve the educational
learning process for our Nebraska children, the OPS continual refusal to reform
its educational crisis situation sees “Many Children Left Behind.”
Ops55.doc. 12-06.