Nebraska education board fails to pass social studies standards as members split along partisan lines

The State Board of Education failed to pass new social studies standards in a 4-4 vote on Friday. The four Democrats voted against the standards, sharing concerns about the removal of the words “underrepresented” and "marginalized," while the four Republicans voted to approve them.

The board vote is the final step in an 18-month process to upgrade the standards. The Nebraska Department of Education assembled a team of 21 people from various school districts, educational service units and higher education institutions that represent different areas of the state. That group then went through the standards from kindergarten through high school and made changes where they felt necessary.

Then, the standards were brought to the public through several surveys before being brought to the board for discussion and a vote. NDE Deputy Commissioner Jane Stavem said these standards are a foundational structure for schools to work off of.

“They can adopt the standards as they are. They can adopt the standards and things that they may want to include,” Stavem said. “Then, school districts are charged with writing the curriculum and the implementation of those standards into everyday instruction, including materials selection and any of the updates that they do then with courses or progression of courses, how those middle level to high school courses progress.”

Since the revisions did not pass with a majority vote, the 2019 standards stay in place.

Right before the board took a vote, Elizabeth Tegtmeier claimed someone called her saying they could get a fifth yes vote for the revisions if she promised to “horse trade” the presidency next year.

"I don't think these standards are probably as bad as they're being presented because I got a call yesterday saying, 'Hey, we can get you a fifth yes vote if you'll horse trade the presidency next year.,'" Tegtmeier said. "Sorry, but I don't buy and sell votes, and I need people around this table to quit playing politics."

She did not name who, and no one said anything following the claim.

“We don't horse trade votes,” Tegtmeier said. “Votes are not for sale. Vote your conscience. If they're really that bad, vote no.”

Several hours after the meeting, Maggie Douglas, Deborah Neary and Liz Renner, three of the Democrats on the board, released a statement saying they did not have knowledge of these discussions, and did not authorize or support them.

"We would never trade our votes on academic standards — or any other substantive matter before the Board — in order to advance the political position of ourselves, another Board member or our political party," the statement read. "Public confidence in this Board depends upon Nebraskans knowing that our decisions are being made openly, independently and in accordance with the responsibilities entrusted to us."

She said the board members against the revisions should come back with some changes to lead to a unanimous vote, and Tegtmeier pointed out the times that board members did that with mental health grants and added an assurance statement that got those grants passed.

The removal of ‘underrepresented’ and ‘marginalized’

Sherry Jones, a Republican on the officially nonpartisan board, said the members of the planning and evaluation committee were able to provide input last fall. She shared that one of her recommendations — the replacement of “underrepresented” and “marginalized” with terms such as “varying perspectives” and “multiple perspectives” — was implemented in the proposed standards.

”I believe the word ‘marginalized’ is subjective and is an inflammatory word, which can bring about feelings and thoughts of hopelessness, helplessness and unwarranted guilt in our children, and division,” Jones said. “How do you define marginalized?”

Jones shared examples of men making up 49% of the U.S. population while not making up the same percentage in the nursing field. She also brought up that the NBA does not have a proportionate amount of Hispanic and Asian men on basketball teams.

Liz Renner, a Democrat, pushed back on Jones’ reasoning, saying she doesn’t see the inclusion of “underrepresented” and “marginalized” as a numbers game.

Renner discussed an example of the history of slavery, and how she doesn’t remember her or her daughter learning about how Black enslaved people worked to free themselves. She recalled learning about the civil war, the two groups fighting and then slavery ending.

“Neither is wrong, but if there's not room for both, then I think we're getting an incomplete picture for our kids, and how can we do better if we don't have a more thorough, complete picture?” Renner said. “While various and diverse are similar words, they represent very different things, and that matters to me.”

Deborah Neary, a Democrat, was on the board when the previous social studies standards were approved. She said she was disappointed in the process this time because people who helped write standards in the past weren’t invited back.

Neary added that in the first committee meeting about the standards, she was handed an article from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative-leaning education think tank. Other board members such as Jones referenced the institute’s failing grade of Nebraska’s social studies standards as reason to support the revisions.

“That — with the fact that we didn't accept people onto the writing committee that had asked to be because they had been before, and they had tremendous experience — told me that we were making a departure in how these were going to be created that I had not seen in any standards before, and it made me sad,” Neary said.

NDE Commissioner Brian Maher said he would like to talk with Neary about what she believes has changed.

“I don't think it has, at least not from recent standards revisions,” Maher said. “If it has, I'd like to get that corrected internally.”

Maher also encouraged the board to use the processes and resources NDE has for connecting with teachers and higher education.

The State Board of Education’s next regularly scheduled business meeting is Oct. 2 in Scottsbluff.

By way of full disclosure, Brian Maher is a member of Nebraska Public Media’s governing board, the Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Commission.