Hi, My Name is Jonene...and I'm a Registered Republican.

[All: Hi, Jonene!]

No, I have not lost my mind. I did not hit my head. Please do not call 9-1-1. I joined The Grand Old Party in order to vote in our upcoming gubernatorial primary, because the only real race at this point is who will win the Republican nomination for Nebraska Governor, and the Big Issue on the table is that wonderful school district consolidation/split question that has graced national headlines: Omaha School District To Be Split Down Racial Lines.
We are so proud.

So for a few weeks I'm red-state. Just until I can vote for the guy who helped Crazy Ernie's bill pass into law. I am all for the splitting of OPS. The fact that it may occur "down racial lines" has to do with local schools and demographics more than the featured articles imply. Southeast Omaha is primarily Latino, Northeast Omaha is historically African-American, and Northwest Omaha is mostly Caucasian. Unless you split the Florida-shaped OPS district into horizontal stripes, it's going to be racially split if it's divided. Welcome to Omaha.

Anyway. Without getting into it completely, last year the Omaha Public School District set in motion a plan to annex our district (Millard) and another under their "One City, One District" plan. The Millard District, as a whole, consistently ranks better on standardized tests and overall performance than OPS (smaller districts tend to fare, on average, better than larger, super-districts). Those of us who live in Millard pay higher property taxes, in large part, to support the Millard School District. In fact, we recently passed a bond issue to raise our taxes yet again in order to facilitate the building of new schools and the updating of existing ones in order to keep up with rapid enrollment growth. The view from the Millard side of the issue--OPS wants access to our tax base, although they've never admitted as much.

Now that Senator Ernie's suggestion has come about--Divide the OPS District into 3 smaller districts, thereby increasing local control and creating a cooperative learning community (that would include the Millard and other districts) where children could attend whatever school they wanted to, OPS cries, "Racism!" [Those of you familiar with Ernie Chambers have to appreciate the irony. If you don't know who he is, Google an image.] I mean, if they don't absorb our school district, where are they gonna get their money? Geez, it's not like they could talk their constituents into passing a bond issue to raise their taxes to help improve the schools or something. That'd just be stupid.

So yes, fine. Call me what you will, but I'm voting for Governor Dave, who all along has been telling OPS to sit down & stop whining. Besides, a vote for Dave is a vote against Coach Tom, which is another story entirely (rumors of Blue Laws abound). As the yard signs on my block say:
Save Our Schools!
Millard Forever!
(Is the primary over yet?)