Hearing on hot-button education issues signals Nebraska conservatives’ plans for next year

By MARGERY A. BECK
Associated Press

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An out-of-session hearing by the Nebraska Legislature’s Education Committee is signaling plans by conservatives to again push for legislation to determine how schools deal with race, LGBTQ+ issues and other hot-button issues. Sen. Dave Murman is the conservative chairman of the Nebraska Legislature’s Education Committee. His hearing Monday mostly discussed social-emotional learning, or SEL, which has become a lightning rod among conservatives who say schools use it to promote progressive ideas about race, gender and sexuality. The decades-old concept seeks to teach students how to manage their emotions, make good decisions, share and collaborate. But several testifiers invited by Murman made far-fetched claims that it’s being used to teach critical race theory in public schools.