Former State Sens. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln, center left, and Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn joined Lincoln mother Heather Schmidt, at right, to ask state lawmakers and the Nebraska Department of Education to preserve robust reporting requirements for dyslexia in Nebraska's K-12 schools. At left is State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, a member of the Legislature's Education Committee. Jan. 20, 2026. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
People are also reading…
LINCOLN — As the Nebraska Legislature considers whether to mandate increased support for struggling young readers, a Lincoln mother urges officials to act as she continues a years-long push for literacy and dyslexia awareness.
Heather Schmidt of Lincoln said she is “cautiously optimistic” about the newest amendment to Legislative Bill 1050. If passed, the State Board of Education would craft a model policy around reading interventions, dyslexia screening and standards on when to recommend holding students back for persistent reading deficiencies by the end of third grade.
The model would need to include data reporting requirements and flexibility so local schools, by July 1, 2028, could adopt or update their policies and implement the changes “within existing resources.”
“We’re making progress, I think. Slowly. Not quick enough to make a difference in generations of children at this point,” said Schmidt, whose oldest daughter, Norah, 19, has dyslexia.
Schmidt was among a few individuals to speak during a public hearing in support LB 1050, a priority of Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen. She offered her own framework around dyslexia screening and help designed to support students with dyslexia and not make the expectations “squishy anymore.”
“I suppose in 2018, we kind of thought, ‘Yay, now we’re going to do dyslexia, and these kids aren’t going to be invisible anymore,’” Schmidt said. “We haven’t seen that materialize.”
Norah Schmidt, now a college freshman, told the Examiner this month that she doesn’t think kids should be held back but should be given the help they need to learn to read. Then, retention would not be a worry.
“Kids who need extra help with education should be given that because that’s the main job of educators,” Norah Schmidt said. “Kids should have the education they need to succeed.”
Adding nuance
The Legislature took a major step in 2018 with the passage of the “Nebraska Reading Improvement Act,” led by former State Sens. Lou Ann Linehan of the Elkhorn area and Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln. The 2018 law set up a process where K-3 students are assessed three times a year and, if struggling in reading, are put on a formal “reading improvement plan.”
The bipartisan legislative duo toured schools in fall 2017 and later passed frameworks to define and support students with dyslexia. Kindergartners in fall 2017 will head to high school this fall.
Lawmakers for years, including Linehan and former State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha, have urged the Legislature to act because kids can’t simply wait for legislative action.
LB 1050 entered the picture this year with support from U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, who is visiting Nebraska on Thursday. The original bill would have mandated that students not able to read by the end of third grade be held back automatically.
Linehan had proposed similar legislation during her freshman year in 2017. She later proposed allowing parents to move their child to fourth grade if they choose. Lawmakers amended LB 1050 for a similar parental opt-out during this year’s first-round debate on March 26. The bill advanced 26-10, and it returns for the second of three rounds of debate Wednesday. It needs 25 votes.
Some lawmakers opposing the bill worried it added bureaucracy, would be punitive or would pass on unfunded costs to schools, which they argued might increase property taxes to cover implementation costs.
State Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward, vice chair of the Education Committee and a former school board member, is leading the amendment being considered Wednesday, which would hand the development of reading intervention requirements to the Nebraska Department of Education and local school boards, rather than the Legislature.
“Very few policies are so easy or black and white that it fits a school of [Omaha Public Schools] size down to McPherson size,” Hughes said.
Nebraska public schools span the range in pre-K-12 enrollment from roughly 52,000 students in OPS to about 50 students in McPherson County Schools.
‘Shouldn’t be new or scary’
However, advocacy organizations representing administrators, school boards and teachers remain opposed, Hughes and others said.
“The Hughes amendment is far better, but our preference is for this bill to die on select file,” said Nebraska State Education Association President Tim Royers. “The governor’s planned event tomorrow with Secretary McMahon is clear evidence that this is all driven by his desire to score political points, not what’s best for kids.”
Linehan and State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, an Education Committee member, told the Nebraska Examiner this week that many current complaints about LB 1050 are about what’s already required in law, including targeted supports and the thrice-yearly reading assessments. The mandatory retention, which Conrad described as “very misguided,” has been removed.
“This shouldn’t be new or different or scary,” Conrad said, noting that schools already have policies on literacy and grade retention. “I’m not quite sure why there’s still so much opposition.”
Conrad said the Education Committee’s work to add a parental override and more flexibility for English language learners and students receiving accommodations was a “far better iteration.” For some, retention might be best, she said, but it can’t be “one size fits all” or exclude parents.
Parents already have the option to hold their child back in grades K-3 for academic reasons under a 2024 law that Conrad led.
‘More bureaucracy’
State Board of Education Vice President Liz Renner of Omaha said she worries that in some states with a parental exemption, such as Michigan, the system turned into a “haves and have-nots,” where families with resources could appeal and others were held back.
“I feel like a law is not quite flexible enough for the situation, because I just think there’s a lot of gray area for families and for students and for schools,” Renner said. “I definitely think it’s a great idea for it to come to the Board of Ed.”
But Renner remains opposed to LB 1050 and doesn’t understand why it would need to be put into law, especially without more state funding to help local schools implement the policies.
“I just don’t think it adds anything to the statewide goal of improving literacy, other than more bureaucracy,” Renner said.
The State Board officially took no position on the original LB 1050 after a motion to oppose it split 4-4 in early March.
A model policy?
State Board of Education President Elizabeth Tegtmeier of North Platte and fellow board member Lisa Schonhoff of Bennington also voiced hesitation on the model policy component, but not on the goal LB 1050 seeks to achieve.
Schonhoff testified in favor of LB 1050. She described it as the “accountability piece that we’re lacking.” She is a “little bit leery” of the model policy, because she doesn’t know what it would look like, though she loves the deference to local control. At the same time, she noted that reading and test scores over the past decade have declined, with local control.
“At some point, we have to say, ‘Hey, something’s not working with local control,’” Schonhoff said. “We’ve got to figure that out because kids are going to be suffering, and it just keeps getting worse.”
She said she reached out to Mississippi and Louisiana education teams on how they improved reading proficiency, finding that many states have a retention policy. She, Linehan and multiple lawmakers have said the point isn’t punishment but providing targeted, strategic supports.
Tegtmeier said she was surprised no one from the Education Committee or Pillen’s team had reached out before LB 1050 was introduced, being “consequential legislation.” She sees arguments on both sides but said the point is telling schools they “absolutely must do everything within their power to help children learn to read.”
Providing a parental override is important, Tegtmeier said, but her concern with the model policy is that schools already have the power to act.
“I’m just not sure I see the value in more legislation that doesn’t have any teeth,” Tegtmeier said.
‘More harm than good’
State Sens. Ashlei Spivey and Margo Juarez, both of Omaha, had urged the Legislature to slow down and that the legislation was moving too fast.
Spivey, a member of the Appropriations Committee, proposed having the Legislature spend $15 million each year to implement the law. The state doesn’t have such room in its budget, and the Nebraska Department of Education has received an influx of more than $80 million over a few years, specifically earmarked for reading from state, federal and private sources.
State Sen. Jane Raybould of Lincoln, who succeeded Pansing Brooks, has filed a motion to kill the bill. She said she is getting “bombarded” with messages from educators, schools and lobbyists for schools that LB 1050 is still a “bad bill.” She said Lincoln Public Schools has estimated a $4.2 million annual cost, which wouldn’t be covered by the state.
“It needs to put a pause in it to go back to committee and deal with a lot of the issues that they keep bringing up,” Raybould said Wednesday. She said educators have told her retention would “do more harm than good, particularly to children of color.”
Linehan said if it costs so much, she questioned what schools and others have truly done in the past 10 years to help struggling readers.
Schmidt said the arguments of being “too fast” leave her with “sheer frustration” and a sense of “starting over again.” It has largely been freshmen senators questioning the legislation.
“That was stunning and just sort of makes somebody almost feel like what’s the point of continuing to try and change things?” Schmidt said.
Schmidt described some deja vu and a feeling of “starting over again” like in 2017 and 2018, when some lawmakers then said the Linehan-Pansing Brooks efforts would be “repetitive” and weren’t needed.
Schmidt said lawmakers should keep personal stories in mind and know that for everyone who speaks, there are hundreds more. She said lawmakers need to understand legislative history.
Making a change
State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, who is leading LB 1050 as Education Committee chair, said he is good with Hughes’ amendment because it includes three parts: the parental override to retention, reporting requirements and early parental involvement, as early as kindergarten.
“I kind of look at it as a participation trophy, not that it’s necessarily a trophy to move on, but there has to be accountability,” Murman said.
He and Schnoff said change is needed in part as statewide reading scores have declined over the past decade. Linehan said officials don’t want to continue the “downward spiral.”
“We cannot keep doing what we have been doing and expect different results,” Murman said.
‘We can’t compete with the experts’
Murman noted term limits in the Legislature — restricting senators to up to two four-year terms — have also complicated the legislative process, giving increased strength to legislative staff and lobbyists compared to lawmakers. This includes efforts to address education and literacy.
Conrad, Linehan and Schmidt separately acknowledged the imbalance between a mother such as Schmidt and lobbyists. Conrad and Linehan said it might take a while before policymakers begin questioning what they’re told, with Conrad noting there’s a level of trust with local schools.
“No, we can’t compete with the experts. We don’t have the access. We don’t have the money. We don’t have the numbers,” Schmidt said. “But our stories and our voices should be more important than that.”
Linehan, no stranger to fights with school officials, said it might take three years to figure out that what a senator is being told by education leaders might not be reality.
“Then you fight them, and then you’re gone,” Linehan said.
Conrad’s first legislative election in 2006 was the first time term limits began booting senators. She said it’s harder to get up to speed on complex issues and natural for new policymakers to defer to school officials, including local ones.
She said it takes a while to build independence and balance goals to support public schools while also being unafraid to hold them accountable.
“I think, unfortunately, school officials have taken advantage of that lack of strength and institutional knowledge in the Legislature and have resisted accountability,” Conrad said, who returned to the Legislature after being term-limited.
Pansing Brooks is running to return to the Legislature, which would make her the second woman to return after sitting out due to term limits, after Conrad. Linehan said she’s happy about that potential.
“The only way we can hold the schools accountable to what we do, obviously, is by being there longer,” Linehan said. “I feel once Patty comes back, there’ll be a reckoning, because that is really a nonpartisan issue.”
The Legislature last year advanced a constitutional amendment to potentially allow lawmakers to serve one more four-year term. Voters will weigh in on that amendment this fall.
‘A shining star’
Of Schmidt’s advocacy, Conrad and Linehan praised her work in helping the Legislature, especially in the era of term limits.
“She’s just a shining star when it comes to what it means to be an engaged and responsible citizen,” said Conrad, now in her 12th year as a lawmaker. She is unopposed for reelection.
Linehan, who was term-limited after 2024, described Schmidt as a dedicated mom who fought to make things work for her kids. She said those advocates are important, who know the facts and background, while lobbyists organize on the other side.
“I wasn’t paying that much attention until Heather called me,” Linehan said, adding later: “She just keeps coming back. She’s just incredible.”
The vigilance has also helped preserve dyslexia reporting requirements Linehan put in place in 2023. Schmidt, Linehan and Pansing Brooks all returned this February to fight to preserve those, and Schmidt and her daughter similarly showed up in 2025. The reporting is meant to add more accountability to the 2018 law. The group successfully fended off changes each time.
Of why she continues showing up, Schmidt said she looks at her girls and wonders, “What if?”
“When I think of what could have been, it’s heartbreaking,” Schmidt said. “I don’t want other kids and families to have to worry about that.”
Conrad said she can’t describe how intimidating or scary it can be for Nebraskans to engage with the Legislature and lawmaking process, but she said when people do — as Schmidt has — it makes public policy “richer” and “more responsive.”
“I am grateful for her incredible work and impressed by her vigilance,” Conrad said of Schmidt. “Her personal sacrifice in stepping forward and into advocacy has made the state a better place and should inspire others.”
This story is provided by States Newsroom, a nonprofit state news network and Blox Digital content partner.
