I hope you ordered a hodgepodge of random and interesting political updates, because that’s what I’m serving up.
School choice exploding across the nation
The national school choice research and advocacy organization, EdChoice, recently issued a nationwide report on school choice growth. Unsurprisingly, school choice continues to explode in popularity with parents and students. Overall, school choice programs across the country saw a 25% increase. While this is impressive, let’s dig into the data of some specific states.
Despite our Iowa neighbors having inferior corn (don’t forget to laugh!), they have an incredible school choice program. Between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, their program experienced 66% growth, increasing from 16,750 students in non-public schools to 27,900.
Arkansas enacted its first-ever school choice program in 2023, and non-public school enrollment went from 4,800 students to 14,300. A mere 197% increase!
Similarly, West Virginia launched its first school choice program and saw a 103% increase, going from 5,400 students to 11,000.
Florida, which has long-standing school choice programs, continues to see major increases. They went from 345,223 students to 449,467 in non-public schools between 2023-24 and 2024-25.
Behind each data point are real children and real parents being empowered with the ability to send their kids to a school that best fits their educational needs. This report inspires me – and I hope you, too – to continue fighting for Nebraska families to regain school choice.
Priest-penitent privilege case
Not sure if you caught it in the secular news, but the Nebraska Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments on a case invoking the priest-penitent privilege.
Sadly, the case involves a dad who murdered his two children in Nebraska. He later fled to California. While there, he had conversations with two different priests and disclosed killing his children.
The question before the court: whether these statements can be entered into evidence to prove his guilt.
There is a long-standing legal doctrine called the priest-penitent privilege. This privilege excludes from evidence statements made to a clergy member with the expectation of confidentiality and where the clergy member had a duty of confidentiality according to their religious doctrines, tenets and practices.
This legal doctrine recognizes the sacrosanct nature of religious practices like sacramental confession and prevents the government from prying into these settings. Similar doctrines protect sensitive conversations in the secular context. For example, the attorney-client privilege treats confidential conversations between a client and their attorney as inadmissible evidence.
A lower district court said the statements were not confidential. For example, while admitting the murder to one priest, the priest asked if he could notify the cops, and the dad agreed to it. Also, the district court stated that the admissions were not made during a sacramental confession or in some other spiritual context where confidentiality is expected.
Not that I’m the judge, but it seems there were never confidential conversations that took place, and the district court ruled properly.
The case is on appeal at the Nebraska Supreme Court, and we await their ruling.
Let’s not forget, behind these nuanced and technical discussions about the law, there are real people involved. Pray for the children who were killed and the discernment and wisdom of all judges across Nebraska.
One Big Beautiful Bill impact
The Nebraska Department of Revenue issued a mandatory report on the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the recent budget reconciliation bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump.
The budget reconciliation bill made numerous changes to federal tax law, which also affects the Nebraska tax code. These changes will result in more than $406 million less in tax revenues over the next four fiscal years.
Governor Pillen’s office and Senator Ricketts stated these decreased tax revenues to the state are proof that the budget reconciliation act is already putting tax relief back into the hands of Nebraskans.
As always, the state’s fiscal health will be a topic of much conversation and debate, and it will certainly be one of the main attractions of the upcoming legislative session.
Pray for all tasked with prudently collecting and spending taxpayer dollars. They have plenty of work ahead of them.
Tom Venzor is executive director of the Nebraska Catholic Conference, with headquarters in Lincoln. Contact him at tvenzor@necatholic.org.
Nebraska Legislature
Commentary
“I’ll Take the Hodgepodge!”
September 4, 2025
I hope you ordered a hodgepodge of random and interesting political updates, because that’s what I’m serving up.
School choice exploding across the nation
The national school choice research and advocacy organization, EdChoice, recently issued a nationwide report on school choice growth. Unsurprisingly, school choice continues to explode in popularity with parents and students. Overall, school choice programs across the country saw a 25% increase. While this is impressive, let’s dig into the data of some specific states.
Despite our Iowa neighbors having inferior corn (don’t forget to laugh!), they have an incredible school choice program. Between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, their program experienced 66% growth, increasing from 16,750 students in non-public schools to 27,900.
Arkansas enacted its first-ever school choice program in 2023, and non-public school enrollment went from 4,800 students to 14,300. A mere 197% increase!
Similarly, West Virginia launched its first school choice program and saw a 103% increase, going from 5,400 students to 11,000.
Florida, which has long-standing school choice programs, continues to see major increases. They went from 345,223 students to 449,467 in non-public schools between 2023-24 and 2024-25.
Behind each data point are real children and real parents being empowered with the ability to send their kids to a school that best fits their educational needs. This report inspires me – and I hope you, too – to continue fighting for Nebraska families to regain school choice.
Priest-penitent privilege case
Not sure if you caught it in the secular news, but the Nebraska Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments on a case invoking the priest-penitent privilege.
Sadly, the case involves a dad who murdered his two children in Nebraska. He later fled to California. While there, he had conversations with two different priests and disclosed killing his children.
The question before the court: whether these statements can be entered into evidence to prove his guilt.
There is a long-standing legal doctrine called the priest-penitent privilege. This privilege excludes from evidence statements made to a clergy member with the expectation of confidentiality and where the clergy member had a duty of confidentiality according to their religious doctrines, tenets and practices.
This legal doctrine recognizes the sacrosanct nature of religious practices like sacramental confession and prevents the government from prying into these settings. Similar doctrines protect sensitive conversations in the secular context. For example, the attorney-client privilege treats confidential conversations between a client and their attorney as inadmissible evidence.
A lower district court said the statements were not confidential. For example, while admitting the murder to one priest, the priest asked if he could notify the cops, and the dad agreed to it. Also, the district court stated that the admissions were not made during a sacramental confession or in some other spiritual context where confidentiality is expected.
Not that I’m the judge, but it seems there were never confidential conversations that took place, and the district court ruled properly.
The case is on appeal at the Nebraska Supreme Court, and we await their ruling.
Let’s not forget, behind these nuanced and technical discussions about the law, there are real people involved. Pray for the children who were killed and the discernment and wisdom of all judges across Nebraska.
One Big Beautiful Bill impact
The Nebraska Department of Revenue issued a mandatory report on the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the recent budget reconciliation bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump.
The budget reconciliation bill made numerous changes to federal tax law, which also affects the Nebraska tax code. These changes will result in more than $406 million less in tax revenues over the next four fiscal years.
Governor Pillen’s office and Senator Ricketts stated these decreased tax revenues to the state are proof that the budget reconciliation act is already putting tax relief back into the hands of Nebraskans.
As always, the state’s fiscal health will be a topic of much conversation and debate, and it will certainly be one of the main attractions of the upcoming legislative session.
Pray for all tasked with prudently collecting and spending taxpayer dollars. They have plenty of work ahead of them.
Tom Venzor is executive director of the Nebraska Catholic Conference, with headquarters in Lincoln. Contact him at tvenzor@necatholic.org.