My Personal Recap the December 2025 SBOE Meeting

My Views Are My Own

By Lisa Schonhoff, Ed.S.

12/16/2025

Serving on the Nebraska State Board of Education for the past year has been an adventure filled with learning and responsibility. Each month, I’ve spent countless hours reviewing agendas, researching organizations, and examining funding sources.  Through this work, I’ve seen firsthand the dedication of so many individuals who are committed to helping our students succeed. At the same time, I’ve also recognized the ongoing challenge of balancing budgetary requests — some of which may or may not directly impact student achievement. I am truly grateful to my constituents for entrusting me with this responsibility.

$30 Million Error

In December, the first item on the agenda was the $30 million Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act (TEEOSA) error.  In the past several weeks, several constituents have reached out in regard to the over payment to three school districts in Nebraska, Omaha, Grand Island, and Southern Public Schools.  The majority of board members understand the gravity of this situation, causing some heated tension during our board meeting which can be viewed in the first 20 minutes on the live stream.  Following are my questions to Commissioner Maher and brief summaries of his responses:  

How did this happen?  

“The (calculation) error was within the “poverty allowance” for schools and districts participating in the Community Eligibility Provision of the National School Lunch Program.”  Since COVID, the formula for calculating the poverty allowance has changed and was not reflected in the overall numbers.   The Commissioner explained the six step process for determining TEEOSA.  The error was made in step one, and was not caught until step six, where Nebraska State Auditor Mike Foley caught the error. 

1. NDE programmer pulls the data.  

2. NDE staff verifies the data.

3. NDE School Finance Officer reviews the calculations

4. Data is sent out to school districts for review.  The data is available for three days so that local school districts can verify the data.  

5. A model of Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act (TEEOSA) is put out for review by school districts with the corresponding data.  

6. State Auditor Review

Who is being held accountable?  

The person who made the calculation error is no longer working for the Nebraska Department of Education.

How will we ensure this does not happen again?  

Our finance team is working diligently on a plan, and we will be reporting back to the board in January. Please stay tuned. 

Tax Dollars for Video Games in Classrooms?  

One budgetary request that I voted no on is providing video games in classrooms. Now that we KNOW what screens are doing to student performance and mental health (stay tuned for future blog post on EdTech), I would have thought this vote would have been a no brainer, but then there is politics.  Putting politics over what is best for kids will never be an option when it comes to my vote.  I pointed out that we can look to other states that have purchased Plasma Games such as North Carolina. The North Carolina Department of Instruction stated that “interest in the game amongst students and teachers showed little improvement…nearly 80% of licenses to use the game, costing a total of $1.4 million, were not activated.  There has been ongoing controversy in the Nebraska Legislature in regard to the School Improvement funding for these video games in classrooms.  Plasma Games passed with a 5:3 vote.  

NDE Strategic Plan

Another significant topic that was discussed during our meeting was the strategic plan for the Nebraska State Board of Education.  The NDE did a nice job of keeping the strategic plan succinct and user friendly.  I plan to use the first Strategic Priority regarding improving student achievement (page 9) often when asking questions about spending.  Please note that proficiency is determined using Nebraska Student Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) and should not be confused with the NAEP, the national assessment.  

Nebraska Social Studies Standards 

Currently, the Nebraska Department of Education is revising the social studies standards.  The Nebraska social studies standards currently receive an extremely low rating from Civics Alliance.  Following are just a few of the recommendations:

• The Standards should emphasize instruction in America’s foundational commitment to the ideal of liberty.

• The revised standards should emphasize patriotic content, especially making sure to include it in K-2.

• The Standards should include material on America’s colonial history—the first 150 years of our nation’s history. It also should include substantial coverage of America’s and Nebraska’s common culture, integrated throughout its coverage of American and Nebraskan history. The history of common culture is the history of what unites Americans and Nebraskans, rather than what divides them.

• The Standards should provide the coherent narrative of the ideals and institutions of liberty that formed America.

• The Standards also should create a distinct World History sequence.

The department is still accepting public input at the following email address:  nde.socialstudiesstandardsinput@nebraska.gov