Historical public education information in Nebraska, 2011-2015

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Education policy in the U.S.

Public education in the U.S.

School choice in the U.S.

Charter schools in the U.S.

Higher education in the U.S.

Glossary of education terms

Education statistics

This page contains archived information on Nebraska's public education system, primarily from 2011-2012, but also from other years due to the availability of data at the time it was written. For more recent information, view Nebraska's public education page.

The Nebraska public school system (prekindergarten through grade 12) operates within districts governed by locally elected school boards and superintendents. In 2012 Nebraska had 301,296 students enrolled in a total of 1,090 schools in 288 school districts. While the national ratio of teachers to students was 1:16, in Nebraska there were 22,182 teachers in the public schools, or roughly one teacher for every 14 students. There was roughly one administrator for every 292 students, compared to the national average of one administrator for every 295 students. On average Nebraska spent $10,825 per pupil in 2011, which ranked it 20th highest in the nation. The state's graduation rate was 88 percent in 2012. This was the Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate reported to the United States Department of Education for all students in 2011-2012.

State agencies

See also: Nebraska Department of Education

The Nebraska Department of Education oversees early childhood, elementary, secondary and postsecondary education in Nebraska. It is a constitutional agency, approved by voters and governed by state and federal statutes, and operates under the direction the Nebraska State Board of Education. As of June 2015, Matthew Blomstedt was the Nebraska Commissioner of Education.

The mission statement of the Nebraska Department of Education reads:

“

To lead and support the preparation of all Nebraskans for learning, earning, and living.

”

The Nebraska State Board of Education is an elected, constitutional body that oversees the Nebraska Department of Education. It is a nonpartisan body that has members from each district. Board members serve four-year terms and are not paid except for expense reimbursements.

Regional comparison

See also: General comparison table for education statistics in the 50 states and Education spending per pupil in all 50 states

The following chart shows how Nebraska compared to three neighboring states with respect to number of students, schools, the number of teachers per pupil and the number of administrators per pupil for the 2011-2012 school year. Further comparisons between these states with respect to performance and financial information are given in other sections of this page.

Regional comparison, 2011-2012
State	Schools	Districts	Students	Teachers	Teacher/pupil ratio	Administrator/pupil ratio	Per pupil spending
Nebraska	1,090	288	301,296	22,182	1:13.6	1:291.5	$10,825
Iowa	1,411	361	495,870	34,658	1:14.3	1:277.2	$9,807
Kansas	1,359	321	486,108	37,407	1:13	1:259.4	$9,498
South Dakota	704	171	128,016	9,247	1:13.8	1:309.8	$8,805
United States	98,328	17,992	49,521,669	3,103,263	1:16	1:295.2	$10,994
Sources: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Public Elementary/Secondary Education Survey", 2011-12 v.1a. National Center for Education Statistics, "Table 2. Number of operating public schools and districts, state enrollment, teacher and pupil/teacher ratio by state: School year 2011–12" U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Demographics

See also: Demographic information for all students in all 50 states

The following table displays the ethnic distribution of students in Nebraska as reported in the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data for 2011-2012.

Demographic information for Nebraska's K-12 public school system
Ethnicity	Students	State percentage	United States percentage**
American Indian	4,381	1.45%	1.10%
Asian	6,276	2.08%	4.68%
African American	20,262	6.72%	15.68%
Hawaiian Nat./Pacific Isl.	355	0.12%	0.42%
Hispanic	49,405	16.40%	24.37%
White	211,406	70.17%	51.21%
Two or More	9,211	3.06%	2.54%
**Note: This is the percentage of all students in the United States that are reported to be of this ethnicity.

Enrollments by region type

See also: Student distribution by region type in the United States

During the 2011-2012 school year a plurality of students in Nebraska attended city schools. Students in the state were next most likely to attend rural schools. This was different from neighboring states (Iowa, Kansas and South Dakota), whose students were most likely to attend rural students and then either city or town schools.

Student distribution by region type, 2011-2012 (as percents)
State	City schools	Suburban schools	Town schools	Rural schools
Nebraska	33.9%	12.2%	23.5%	30.4%
Iowa	26.4%	8.2%	25.4%	40.1%
Kansas	24.0%	14.5%	26.6%	34.9%
South Dakota	25.8%	0.8%	27%	46.5%
U.S. average	28.9%	34.0%	11.6%	25.4%
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD)

Academic performance

Education terms
For more information on education policy terms, see this article.
School board elections portal Glossary of education terms School choice on the ballot Education on the ballot

NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Compared to three neighboring states (Iowa, Kansas, and South Dakota), Nebraska had a greater percentage of students score at or above proficient in math and reading in fourth grade than South Dakota during the 2012-2013 school year, but a lower percentage compared to Iowa and Kansas.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Nebraska	45%	36%	37%	37%
Iowa	48%	36%	38%	37%
Kansas	48%	40%	38%	36%
South Dakota	40%	38%	32%	36%
U.S. average	41%	34%	34%	34%
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables," accessed May 13, 2014

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state and ACT and SAT scores in the U.S.

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Nebraska and surrounding states for 2012 and 2013.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores*
State	Graduation rate, 2012		Average ACT composite, 2012		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Nebraska	88%	First	22	78%	1734	4%
Iowa	89%	First	22.1	63%	1763	3%
Kansas	85%	Second	21.9	81%	1752	6%
South Dakota	83%	Second	21.8	81%	1760	3%
U.S. average	80%		21.1		1498
*Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Rate (except for Idaho, Kentucky, Oklahoma, which did not report “Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate,” but instead used their own method of calculation). **Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades 9–12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for Nebraska was lower than the national average at 2.1 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 2.2 percent in the 2011-2012 school year..

Educational choice options

See also: School choice in Nebraska

As of June 2015, school choice options in Nebraska included homeschooling, online learning, private schools and mandatory public school open enrollment policies.

Education funding and expenditures

See also: Nebraska state budget and finances

Breakdown of expenditures by function in fiscal year 2012
Source: National Association of State Budget Officers

According to the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), Nebraska spent approximately 15.3 percent of its fiscal year 2012 budget on elementary and secondary education. This was up 0.5 percentage points, a 3.4 percent increase in the share of the budget from fiscal year 2008, when the state spent 14.8 percent of its budget on elementary and secondary education. Over half of Nebraska's education revenue comes from local funding. State funding accounts for just over 30 percent, and federal funding accounts for about 15 percent.

Comparison of financial figures for school systems
State	Percent of budget (2012)	Per pupil spending (2011)	Revenue sources (2011)
			Percent federal funds	Percent state funds	Percent local funds
Nebraska	15.3%	$10,825	15.04%	30.33%	54.63%
Iowa	16.8%	$9,807	10.15%	43.18%	46.66%
Kansas	25.8%	$9,498	11.05%	53.19%	35.76%
South Dakota	14.3%	$8,805	20.26%	28.93%	50.81%
Sources: NASBO, "State Expenditure Report," Table 8: Elementary and Secondary Education Expenditures As a Percent of Total Expenditures U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Revenue breakdowns

See also: Public school system revenues in the U.S.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system revenues in Nebraska totaled approximately $3.8 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including revenue sources, for Nebraska and surrounding states.

Revenues by source, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	Federal revenue	State revenue	Local revenue	Total revenue
Nebraska	$571,969	$1,153,077	$2,076,882	$3,801,928
Iowa	$596,688	$2,537,754	$2,742,378	$5,876,820
Kansas	$612,100	$2,945,175	$1,979,999	$5,537,274
South Dakota	$262,395	$374,648	$658,100	$1,295,143
U.S. total	$74,943,767	$267,762,416	$264,550,594	$607,256,777
Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Expenditure breakdowns

See also: Public school system expenditures in the United States

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system expenditures in Nebraska totaled approximately $3.7 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including expenditure types, for Nebraska and surrounding states.

Expenditures by type, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	General expenditures**	Capital outlay	Other***	Total expenditures
Nebraska	$3,222,194	$349,683	$85,120	$3,656,997
Iowa	$4,839,681	$861,361	$126,588	$5,827,630
Kansas	$4,584,376	$851,777	$217,901	$5,654,054
South Dakota	$1,105,964	$199,636	$34,799	$1,340,399
U.S. total	$520,577,893	$52,984,139	$29,581,293	$603,143,325
**Funds spent operating local public schools and local education agencies, including such expenses as salaries for school personnel, student transportation, school books and materials, and energy costs, but excluding capital outlay, interest on school debt, payments to private schools, and payments to public charter schools. ***Includes payments to state and local governments, payments to private schools, interest on school system indebtedness, and nonelementary-secondary expenditures, such as adult education and community services expenditures. Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Personnel salaries

See also: Public school teacher salaries in the U.S.

Note: Salaries given are averages for the state. Salaries may vary between a state's urban, suburban, and rural districts and should be adjusted for cost of living. For example, a MacIver Institute study of average teacher salaries in 60 metropolitan areas found that salaries in New York City were the third-highest in absolute figures but 59th-highest when adjusted for the cost of living.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average national salary for classroom teachers in public elementary and secondary schools declined by 1.3 percent from the 1999-2000 school year to the 2012-2013 school year. During the same period in Nebraska, the average salary increased by 7.7 percent.

Estimated average salaries for teachers (in constant dollars**)
	1999-2000	2009-2010	2011-2012	2012-2013	Percent difference
Nebraska	$45,421	$49,345	$48,955	$48,931	7.7%
Iowa	$48,757	$52,973	$51,076	$51,528	5.7%
Kansas	$47,805	$49,804	$47,496	$47,464	-0.7%
South Dakota	$39,728	$41,456	$39,450	$39,580	-0.4%
U.S. average	$57,133	$58,925	$56,340	$56,383	-1.3%
**"Constant dollars based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, adjusted to a school-year basis. The CPI does not account for differences in inflation rates from state to state."

Organizations

Unions

In 2012, the Fordham Institute and Education Reform Now assessed the power and influence of state teacher unions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Their rankings were based on 37 different variables in five broad areas, including: resources and membership, involvement in politics, scope of bargaining, state policies and perceived influence. Nebraska ranked 26th overall, or average, which was in the third tier of five.

The main union related to the Nebraska school system is the Nebraska State Education Association (NSEA). The NSEA is the largest education association in the state.

List of local Nebraska school unions:

• Nebraska State Education Association
• Omaha Education Association
• Lincoln Education Association

Government sector lobbying

See also: Nebraska government sector lobbying

The main education government sector lobbying organization is the Nebraska Association of School Boards.

Transparency

Nebraska Spending is a publicly available website created by the Nebraska government. It discloses information about how the state spends taxpayer dollars and includes data on agency expenditures and contracts. Nebraska Spending was created at the initiative of State Treasurer Shane Osborn in July 2007.

Studies and reports

State Budget Solutions education study

See also: State spending on education v. academic performance (2012)

State Budget Solutions examined national trends in education from 2009 to 2011, including state-by-state analysis of education spending, graduation rates and average ACT scores. The study showed that the states that spent the most did not have the highest average ACT test scores, nor did they have the highest average graduation rates. A summary of the study is available here. The full report can be accessed here.

See also

• Public education in Nebraska
• Nebraska
• Education Policy in the U.S.