Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward traded the Capitol for a classroom last month, visiting a Nebraska school to gain more firsthand experience in the schools she helps shape.
The Nebraska State Education Association invited Nebraska senators to visit schools in the state, and Hughes was happy to jump on the opportunity. She visited Lincoln Southwest High School on Nov. 10.
Hughes represents District 24, which covers Seward, York and parts of Polk and Butler counties, and is part of the legislature’s Education Commission. Prior to stepping into her role as senator, she was on the Seward School Board. She got her substitute teaching license during the COVID-19 pandemic to help alleviate the need for educators and taught middle and high schoolers.
Hughes, a 1989 graduate of Seward High School, said she regularly communicates with administrators in District 24 schools and has visited many of the district’s classrooms over the years. However, the area does not have any Class A schools.
In order to better serve all of Nebraska, Hughes wanted to gain experience in larger schools as well.
“I just wanted to see what it was like, and, likewise, I think urban senators that only have schools that are Class A around them, I think it would benefit them to come out to a McCool Junction or a Milford to see what it’s like in a small school district,” she said.
Hughes observed two sections of Michael Geist’s 90-minute chemistry classes at LSW.
She said she thought Geist was a great teacher and knew how to draw comparisons between concepts to help kids understand them. For example, he compared a chemical reaction the class studied to human interaction.
“I love high school kids, so I enjoyed that part of it, and, honestly, it was fun to sit in a chemistry class again, because I haven’t had chemistry since college,” Hughes said. “They did a little experiment, which was kind of fun to see and pass the beaker around.”
The NSEA gave senators the opportunity to visit schools in hopes to help them get into the buildings for which they will enact policies. Hughes said many senators’ children graduated long ago, so they may not be as familiar with the state of the current school system.
For example, a rumor that Nebraska schools provided litter boxes for students who dress as animals floated around social media, and it is important for people to realize that these rumors are untrue.
“You hear the crazy stories, and so then you think all the schools are doing that, and sometimes you just got to get back in there and be like, ‘Oh, this stuff is still happening the way it should; they’re not teaching terrible things to the kids, and we don’t have litter boxes in the bathroom,” she said. “I think it’s to try to combat some of that, like, ‘Hey, it’s still a normal school, it’s okay.’”
Going forward, Hughes is excited to continue her role in enacting school-related bills.
Since the summer, she has worked on a bill related to school funding. Right now, the state issues property tax credits as a direct reduction on the individual’s property tax bill. Companies that analyze tax levels do not count tax credits, so Nebraska is rated as the state with the fifth highest property taxes in the nation.
If they took the credits into consideration, Nebraska would fall around the middle of the ranking, Hughes said. Her plan is to repurpose the tax credits into the funding formula to bring down the levy and move Nebraska to the middle of the pack.
She will present this in the next legislative session, which begins in January.
Down the road, she also hopes to focus on maximizing efficiency and positive practices that schools provide to students across the state, such as offering dual-credit classes and the opportunity to earn certificates.
“The more we can do that, it gives kids such a leg up,” she said. “Of course, your bigger schools are going to have more opportunity, that’s just a given, but kids in Dundy County schools, for example, should have some of that, too. There’s no reason that we can’t.”
