Senators consider superintendents' pay, term limits

By Fred Knapp , Senior Reporter/Producer Nebraska Public Media

27 de Febrero de 2025 a las 17:00 ·

Sen. Dave Murman speaks Thursday (Photo by Fred Knapp, Nebraska Public Media News) — Sen. Dave Murman speaks Thursday. (Photo by Fred Knapp, Nebraska Public Media News)

Listen To This Story

An effort to limit the pay of Nebraska school superintendents ran into opposition Thursday in the Legislature. And senators considered a constitutional amendment that would add to the number of terms they could serve.

Sen. Dave Murman, chair of the Education Committee, is lead sponsor of the bill that would limit superintendents’ salaries. As introduced, LB300 would say superintendents could not be paid more than five times as much as a beginning teacher. Murman explained his reasoning.

“I think we spend way too much on administration compared to classroom teachers, but I'm just trying to do what I can to control spending going forward on administration. You know, if the upward trajectory keeps going, it's just way out of line,” he said.

Murman said he doesn’t think superintendent pay exceeds five times a starting teacher in any Nebraska district, but some are close. Omaha Public Schools Superintendent Matthew Ray makes $385,000, about four and a half times the starting pay and benefits of a starting teacher, according to Murman’s office.

Sen. Tom Brandt voiced skepticism about the proposal.

“I'm not sure where I'm at on this," he said. "We want to decrease our property taxes, and I kind of feel like they've targeted one very, very small piece of a school system, and have kind of decided that this is the problem, and I'm not so sure that it is."

Sen. Merv Riepe was more definitive.

“I stand in opposition to the proposal presented in LB300, as it is contrary to free market and local school board authority,” he said.

And Sen. Jana Hughes warned her colleagues against legislative overreach.

“These 49 people standing in this Legislature, we talk a lot about local control, and we give a lot of love to local control," she said. "But when it comes down to it, these people here think that ultimately they know better on the details. And in my opinion, this is micromanaging a detail beyond belief."

But Sen. Danielle Conrad, supporting the bill, defended legislative involvement, and criticized some superintendents’ positions.

“The same superintendents have fought against basic transparency in regards to public records and open meetings laws," she said. "The same superintendents have fought against basic transparency in regards to ed tech preying upon our kids. The same superintendents have fought hard against (sic) their practices that send poor kids to collections for school lunch debt… It's our choice in this body to set a different direction when the schools get it wrong."

The Legislature adjourned for the day without reaching a vote. Murman said afterwards he’ll continue to work on the bill before it comes up again for debate.

Also Thursday, members of the Legislature’s Executive Board heard proposals to add one more term to Nebraska’s existing term limits for senators in the Nebraska Legislature. Currently, senators are permitted two four-year terms, for a total of eight years. Proposals by Sen. Rob Dover and Megan Hunt would extend that to three terms, or a total of 12 years, that a senator could serve. Hunt said the current limit puts lawmakers at a disadvantage:

"Many of us come in here with little or no knowledge on many of the public areas that we’re asked as policy makers to kind of become experts in overnight, and make serious decisions about for the people we serve," she said. "And I found, as many who have come before us have shared with us, as I just conveyed to you, that it's just not enough time, and what that effectively ends up doing is it puts a lot more power and influence in the hands of bureaucrats for better, for worse, lifers, people who have been here a long time, including the people in the lobby."

Speaker of the Legislature John Arch, like Hunt in his seventh year in office, said it takes a while to figure out how to get things done.

“Honestly, in about your seventh and eighth year, you feel like you're hitting your stride," he said. "You feel like you've you have finally figured it out, not only policy, but the process, how to be an effective legislator. Because it's not a matter of just bringing great new ideas and -- oh, it's so good to have new ideas -- it's then, how do you turn those into law? How do you effectively legislate?”

Bryan Slone, president of the state chamber of commerce, was among those supporting the proposal. Slone weighed what he said were the pros and cons of term limits.

“While legislative term limits can potentially mitigate against stagnation and create greater turnover in our legislative bodies, they come at a cost that has to be considered: a limitation on candidate choice, arbitrary treatment of representatives, regardless of merit, potential inefficiencies and less expertise on very complicated issues before the legislatures, and the loss of historical perspective,” Slone said.

No one spoke against the proposal. If approved by the Exec Board and the full Legislature, since it’s a constitutional amendment, it would be placed on the election ballot next year, and if voters approve, take effect in 2028.