Dear Governor Heineman,
I have been a tremendous supporter of your political
endeavors for many years. I have been
fortunate enough to work on committees you chaired or formed. I have followed your political career with
great enthusiasm. I have voted continuously
for you and your administration at all levels.
I believe you have always had the best interest of Nebraska in mind.
That is why, with a heavy heart, I am writing this letter to
express my deepest and most heartfelt outrage regarding your initial and
continued support of the new truancy laws.
For a conservative, republican governor to rewrite the definition of
truancy, and in the most fundamental way strip away the rights of parents,
leaves me speechless.
This law is an intrusion on the most basic parental rights
and does nothing to help children with attendance issues. Throwing families into the legal system is traumatic
to the children and strains the family.
This is an individual school issue and should be handled at the (individual)
school level.
In the Omaha
area alone, hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent to administer this
program. This money could be better
utilized at the individual school level to assist children and parents who have
real truancy issues. Children that have
loving and caring parents that are making parental decisions to keep their
children out of class are decisions made by the family, not by government. Also, the strain and added burden this places
on Nebraska ’s
court and child welfare system is an outrage and total mismanagement of tax
payer money.
Please reconsider your position on this law and return the
traditional definition of truancy to the law’s language and return to your
conservative, republican roots to give parental rights back to the
parents. Please stay true to your
conservative values and keep government regulation and the judicial system out
of our schools and our homes.
Sincerely,
Well said Regina. I completely agree.
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