A Nebraska commission tasked with untangling how the state pays for K-12 schools approved 18 recommendations Tuesday, including a push for at least a 4% annual boost in per-pupil foundation aid. But members of the School Financing Review Commission still can't agree on the central question hanging over the whole effort: how much of the cost the state, rather than local property owners, should actually carry.
Commission Splits Over How Far The State Should Go
At a meeting at the Nebraska Department of Education in Lincoln, the commission again approved its 2026 annual report unanimously, according to Nebraska Public Media. The report recommends keeping state support for K-12 schools at a minimum of 51%, while noting commissioners have no consensus on a suitable level beyond that threshold. Former state treasurer and senator Tom Briese argued for a more ambitious target. “Personally, I'd like to see it 100%,” he said, warning that a 51% state share could leave homeowners facing property-tax bill increases of roughly 3% a year.
Not everyone on the 18-member commission was ready to commit to a number. John Schwartz, superintendent of Millard Public Schools and the commission's vice chair, suggested the report simply note that additional discussion is needed to reach consensus on a state funding target. Liz Standish said the commission hadn't discussed the state-local funding mix in a year and urged commissioners to review newly compiled data and reconsider the percentage next year. She added that districts appreciate the progress made in state funding support so far. Commissioner Shavonna Holman was absent from Tuesday's meeting.
Where The Money Would Actually Go
The recommendations also address how Nebraska distributes aid through the Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act, or TEEOSA, the formula used for the state's 244 school districts. They propose eight adjustments to local spending caps, including three-year enrollment averages and revised limited-English-proficiency and poverty factors. Other changes would revise how TEEOSA calculates needs tied to poverty, limited English proficiency and technology, as well as year-over-year funding shifts. Districts could carry forward unused property-tax authority under their base cap, but unused taxing authority accumulated over three years from an override vote would be eliminated.
Commission estimates indicate that the package would have added nearly $55.5 million in aid if it had taken effect before the 2026-27 school year, bringing TEEOSA state aid to $1.15 billion. Under those projections, 232 districts would receive increases of up to 43.32%, while 12 would see decreases ranging from 0.42% to 14.11%. In 2026, 44 of the state's 244 districts were equalized; equalization aid is calculated when a district's needs exceed its available resources. Other districts rely on flat foundation aid, scheduled to rise from $1,500 to $1,560 per student for the 2027-28 school year.
What The Projections Mean For Greater Omaha
The statewide estimates do not specify how the proposed changes would affect Omaha Public Schools, Millard Public Schools or other individual districts compared with current aid. A separate TEEOSA-related event offers context, but is not a projection of the commission's plan: Nebraska Public Media reported that Omaha Public Schools received a $30.5 million state-aid overpayment for the 2025-26 school year, which the Nebraska Department of Education said would be subtracted from the district's 2026-27 allocation. The commission's earlier abbreviated report estimated that state sources provided nearly 53% of public-school revenue in 2024-25, compared with 38% from local sources and 9% from federal funds, according to the Nebraska School Financing Review Commission. That estimate describes a funding mix for a particular year, not the later report's 51% minimum recommendation. In Douglas County, the Nebraska Department of Revenue's 2025 report lists locally assessed real-property value at $71,450,043,055, up 6.93% from $66,819,384,995. That change in assessed value is distinct from levy rates and tax-relief credits and, by itself, does not show how an individual tax bill changed.
A Debate Shaped By Deficits And Past Disputes
The commission itself was created by Nebraska lawmakers in 2025 to improve state K-12 funding and mitigate property tax increases, according to the Nebraska Examiner. The newspaper's reporting notes the Legislature's broader fiscal picture looms over the recommendations: lawmakers must close a projected $209 million deficit by May 2027, and the state budget deficit could grow to $847 million by mid-2029, a figure the Legislature will finalize at an economic forecasting meeting the following week. The state's 49-member Legislature convenes its next session on Jan. 6, 2027, and will decide whether to adopt any of the commission's proposals. Senator Eliot Bostar is expected to introduce the revenue-side changes, while Jana Hughes, who plans to introduce the suggested TEEOSA changes if reelected in two weeks, said the proposed 4% minimum increase should be a priority in 2027.
Dave Murman, who chairs the Legislature's Education Committee, is one of three non-voting lawmakers on the commission, alongside Lou Ann Linehan, who previously chaired the Legislature's Revenue Committee for six years. The question of how heavily the state should lean into school funding isn't new to this group. Omaha Public Schools opposed increased reliance on state funding back in 2024, a reminder that even as the state's role has grown, not every district has welcomed the shift.
Numbers Still Don't Line Up Cleanly
The reported state share varies by source and reporting period. The 2026 commission report puts it at 51%, while a 2025 Nebraska Examiner report cited a 52.6% figure, with local and county spending at about 38%. The difference is a reminder that estimates from different reports and periods are not necessarily directly comparable; commissioners declined to settle on a single state-share target.
Nebraska Public Media's reporting adds broader context to that uncertainty: over the past 20 years, school spending has increased an average of 3.9% per year, compared to inflation averaging about 2.6% per year, and the outlet cautioned that Nebraska's recent progress in replacing property taxes with sales and income taxes for schools could erode if the state's underlying finances don't change. KETV has reported separately that the OpenSky Policy Institute warned the state's Education Future Fund could be drained within a decade without a sustainable revenue stream.
What Happens Next
Brian Maher, who chairs the commission, struck a measured tone after Tuesday's vote, saying the commission's work is just beginning. The panel authorized an internal executive committee to make non-substantive edits to the report before submitting it to the Legislature by Nov. 1, a deadline set under Nebraska Revised Statute §79-10,147.02, which also requires the commission to compare its findings with similar policies in other states where practical. The commission plans to meet again in the first quarter of 2027, leaving the unresolved debate over the state's funding share to carry into another year of Nebraska's long-running property tax fight.
