Just two months after one of Nebraska's most contentious legislative sessions, lawmakers signaled Monday that more angry debate is likely next year over legislation to determine how schools deal with race, LGBTQ+ issues and other hot-button issues that have proved divisive in other Republican-controlled states like Florida.
Sen. Dave Murman, the conservative chairman of the Nebraska Legislature's Education Committee, held a hearing that mostly discussed the use in schools of social-emotional learning, or SEL, that has become a lightning rod among conservatives who say schools use it to promote progressive ideas about race, gender and sexuality, and that a focus on students' well-being takes attention away from academics.
