2005
Week 7
February 19, 2005

Hi-

Talk show hosts complain that legislators think their task is to create more laws and it should be to reduce the number of laws. "The state is not safe while the legislature is in session." These thoughts, of course, are completely off the point of serious comment. The number of laws do not measure the quality of work.

I think the appropriate role of the legislature needs more thought by the public, so that the process of forming and refining public policy can be understood and used by the people. The following is not a definitive statement, by any means, but a modest proposal for adding to study and debate.

The representatives of the people do some of their best work as they determine how to effectively deliver essential services to the citizens. One size does not fit all in a state as diverse as Nebraska, so we need everyone there.

Several current debates are good examples of the role of representatives. One is how natural gas shall be delivered and regulated. We have no less than five, count them, five, bills on the regulation of natural gas. Municipalities regulate within their boundaries and the Public Service Commission regulates and arbitrates disputes and customer complaints among the investor-owned utilities.

Who handles customer complaints within a municipality?
What happens when a city/town grows and moves into an area where investors have established gas lines to customers and therefore have a considerable stake in the future?
Do private companies keep a town from growing by declaring a new area is not large enough to warrant further investment?
Who has final say in what the borders of each provider ought to be? And how can those borders be changed while being fair to citizens and investors?
These subjects warrant extended debate.

The Class I schools debate is another example where full discussion by representatives of all parts of the state is essential. Every one of us has a dog in this fight, as size and shape of schools determines how much state tax money we contribute to local education, and the quality of education affects our state's economic development.

Some Class I schools (grade school only, with its own board) are doing an excellent job of educating smaller number of students, especially in remote areas. Other Class I's were formed with less than noble reasons, to hold down one's property tax below the neighbors. Some are used by parents to transfer their children away from Hispanic children and an overloaded system. Others are used by districts to transfer trouble-making kids out of their "gang" into a new setting, where marvelous progress is often made.

Some of these neighboring school districts cooperate through a shared superintendent and a cooperative board. Some fight with each other, with an overload of staff and board members kicking up more dust than sense. Everyone talks about "local control."

One thing is clear to me as I listen to the days of debate and read stacks of emails. Local control has little meaning unless all the kids in the area are in the same mix, all their parents can run for and vote on the same board and all the land owners in the community are assessed at the same rate.

The compromises so far are headed in that direction. There likely will be no more Class I's standing alone with grade students and no more Class VI, standing alone with high school. Every district will be K-12, operating under one board and superintendent and operating as many attendance centers as makes sense in that local situation. Now we have to fashion protective measures so that as few as possible get hurt in the transition.

This is the right job for the legislature.

Quote of the week: from Andrew Miller, playwright who died this month (not exact):
I think my role writing plays was to be a drop of acid, mixed in the waters of life, washing a bit more rust from the edges of the social order.

I do like that. Hopefully, someone will say that of me when I am gone and others will be heard to say, "Hey, that is what I have been doing too!"

Keep your drops in the mix.

Lowen