Reimbursing teachers for school supplies, requiring colleges to report foreign funding heard by Legislature's Education Committee

By Fred Knapp , Senior Reporter/Producer Nebraska Public Media

Jan. 27, 2025, 5 p.m. ·

Sen. Bob Anderson speaks to the Education Committee Monday (Photo by Fred Knapp, Nebraska Public Media News) — Sen. Bob Anderson speaks to the Education Committee Monday. (Fred Knapp/Nebraska Public Media News)

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Proposals to reimburse teachers for buying classroom supplies and to require colleges to report funding from foreign countries were heard by the Legislature’s Education Committee Monday.

And members of the largest state employees union have ratified a contract for the next two years.

Sen. Jason Prokop introduced a bill (LB282) to have the state reimburse teachers in both public and private schools up to $300 a year for buying classroom supplies. Prokop said studies have shown teachers spend an average of $860 a year of their own money for supplies. He said this would be a way to show support for them at a time of teacher shortages.

Among those supporting the bill was Megan Simsek, a teacher in Lincoln Public Schools. Simsek said during the legislative hearing it would help defray expenses beyond what LPS provides for her team of three third-grade teachers.

“On average, I spend over $1,000 a year on supplies for my students," she said. "This includes everyday items like pencils, erasers, dry erase markers, paper tissues, hand sanitizers and other essential supplies that are not often provided by my annual team budget. This year, our team budget for the 2025 school year was $550 for approximately 60 students, which that breaks down to $9.17 per student."

Simsek said LPS reimburses teachers up to $225 for such personal expenditures, but not all districts do that.

The bill also drew support from Kyle McGowan, speaking for the Nebraska Council of School Administrators and several other school groups. McGowan said it would help repay teachers who see a need and act without waiting to go through their districts.

“Teachers of Nebraska tend to see a problem and act immediately without maybe some of the bureaucracy that it would take to, I'll just say, get money from the schools or another source, so they just do it themselves,” McGowan said.

No one spoke against the proposal, which the Legislative Fiscal Office estimated could cost about $5 million a year.

The Education Committee also heard testimony on a bill (LB378) by Sen. Bob Andersen, to require Nebraska’s public and private colleges and universities to report quarterly on funds received from foreign governments or individuals. Andersen described the situation he is trying to address.

“It's unfortunate fact that hostile foreign governments are using our higher education system to their advantage. China in particular, has a documented pattern of bad behavior, whether stealing intellectual property, spying on students from their countries, or using campus programs to spend anti-democratic philosophies. Foreign governments are manipulating our higher education systems to their advantage,” Andersen said.

University of Nebraska lobbyist Matt Blomstedt opposed the proposal.

“While we share the goal of ensuring accountability, LB378 introduces some duplicative requirements that create substantial administrative burdens without proportional benefit. Specifically, LB378 would require the university report quarterly on nearly all funding from foreign sources with a threshold as low as $50,” Blomstedt said.

Blomstedt said the federal government already requires institutions of higher education to report twice a year on foreign funds of $250,000 or more.

But John Murante, lobbying for a group called State Shield that says its mission is to combat Chinese Communist Party threats to the U.S., said almost 200 colleges and universities have failed to report $13 billion in foreign funds.

Anderson said he is open to raising the threshold of spending that must be reported.

And the largest state employees’ union says its members have ratified a new contract for the next two years giving most of them pay increases of six and a half percent over that period. Justin Hubly, executive director of NAPE/AFSCME Local 61, said he’s pleased with the agreement.

“We're glad to have a new contract for the next biennium," Hubly said. "I think it's going to be a step in the right direction to help us attract and retain current employees, attract some new ones. Our members spoke very loudly and clearly that they wanted salary increases that kept up with the cost of living inflation and accounted for our health insurance increases, and I think this contract does that."

The agreement covers more than 8,000 employees in bargaining units represented by the union, which has about 3,300 members. Hubly said beyond the raises most employees will receive, about 2,000 employees in certain jobs that have higher vacancy rates, less competitive pay or are harder to fill will get more. Those range from 9% for food service workers up to 19% over two years for some employees at regional centers and veterans homes . And about 400 lower-paid employees will now get raises so they make a minimum of $15 an hour.

By way of full disclosure, some Nebraska Public Media employees are members of the NAPE/AFSCME union.