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  • Starbucks Feels the Heat as More Chains Compete for US Coffee Drinkers

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are drinking more coffee than they have in decades. But fewer of them are getting it from Starbucks.

    The company that revolutionized U.S. coffee culture remains America’s biggest player, with nearly 17,000 U.S. stores and plans to open hundreds more. But it’s facing unprecedented competition, which will make it harder to win back the customers it already lost.

    Starbucks’ share of spending at all U.S. coffee shops fell in 2024 and 2025; it now stands at 48%, down from 52% in 2023, according to Technomic, a food industry consulting firm. Dunkin ‘, a perennial rival that just opened its 10,000th U.S. store, gained market share in both of those years.

    Starbucks has other challengers, like the fast-growing drive-thru chains 7 Brew, Scooter’s Coffee and Dutch Bros. Chinese chains like Luckin Coffee and Mixue are opening U.S. stores. High-end coffee shop Blue Bottle, which has 78 U.S. stores, has opened two more since the start of the year. Even McDonald’s and Taco Bell are bolstering their beverage offerings.

    “People haven’t fallen out of love with Starbucks, but they’re now polyamorous in their coffee choices,” said Chris Kayes, chair of the management department in the George Washington University School of Business. “People are now experimenting with other coffees, and they’re seeing what’s out there.”

    Americans love coffee. In both 2024 and 2025, an estimated 66% of Americans reported drinking coffee every day, up 7% from 2020, according to the National Coffee Association, an industry trade group.

    Coffee chains are racing to cash in on that demand. The number of chain coffee stores in the U.S. jumped 19% to more than 34,500 over the last six years, according to Technomic, a consulting firm that researches the foodservice industry.

    Seattle-based Starbucks was a small, regional chain when former CEO Howard Schultz acquired it in 1987. Now, other small chains are seeing explosive growth. Nebraska-based Scooter’s Coffee had 200 locations in 2019; it now has more than 850. Arkansas-based 7 Brew, which had 14 locations in 2019, now has more than 600.

    “There’s too much supply relative to demand,” said Neil Saunders, a managing director and retail analyst at consulting firm GlobalData Retail

    Saunders said Starbucks’ size is somewhat of a disadvantage, since it has less ability to grow sales by opening new locations.

    “Honestly, they’re pretty saturated,” Saunders said. “They’re a very mature business.”

    “Growth doesn’t require us to become something new. It requires us to be exceptionally good at what we already are,” Starbucks Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams said.

    Starbucks expects to open more than 575 new U.S. stores over the next three years. It developed a smaller-format store that is cheaper to build but still has indoor seating, drive-thru lanes and mobile pickup. The company said the reduced scale would allow Starbucks stores to operate in locations they couldn’t before.

    Starbucks is also adding new products, like updated pastries and snackable foods that are high in protein and fiber, to try to win back customers.

    Lack of menu innovation is one reason Starbucks has struggled, especially among younger consumers who like novelty and will try new places to find it, Saunders said.

    Arizona-based Dutch Bros, for example, added protein coffee drinks in January 2024, nearly two years before Starbucks did. Energy drinks make up 25% of Dutch Bros’ business almost 14 years after the chain introduced them. Starbucks offered iced energy drinks for a limited time in 2024; executives said Thursday that customizable energy drinks would appear on the Starbucks menu soon.

    Dutch Bros, which is led by former Starbucks executive Christine Barone, has just over 1,000 shops in the U.S. and hopes to double that number by 2029. It’s betting that customers want speed and convenience; nearly all of its stores are drive-thrus with walk-up windows.

    Dutch Bros also focuses on value. In a recent meeting with investors, Barone pointed out that Dutch Bros’ medium drinks are 24 ounces; at Starbucks, a medium drink is 16 ounces.

    Luckin, whose app brims with coupons and promotions, is also value-oriented. On a recent afternoon, one of its nine New York stores buzzed with customers picking up mobile orders. The tiny shop had no seating.

    Xunyi Xie, who was visiting New York from his home in Delaware, said he stopped by to try a Velvet Latte because Luckin had a $1.99 drink promotion. Xie said he normally brews his own espresso, but if Luckin opened a store that was on his way to work, he would go there.

    As for Starbucks? “I think it’s overpriced,” Xie said.

    In 2024, the average customer spent $9.34 at Starbucks, compared to $8.44 at Dutch Bros and $4.68 at Dunkin’, according to an analysis by the investment research company Morningstar.

    Starbucks didn’t raise prices in its 2025 fiscal year and has vowed to be judicious about future increases. But Ari Felhandler, an equity analyst with Morningstar, said it would be a mistake for Starbucks to try to win over customers with discounts because competitors will always go lower.

    “Keep your prices the same and try to justify them,” Felhandler said. He thinks Starbucks’ store redesigns and new menu items will bring back traffic.

    Grams, Starbucks’ chief operating officer, said the company firmly believes its best way forward is not drive-thru-only stores or mobile pickup kiosks. It’s building cafes with comfortable seating — the “soul of Starbucks,” as he put it — that also serve mobile, drive-thru and delivery customers. Customers sometimes want something convenient, and they sometimes want to dwell, he said.

    “There’s always going to be competition. We’re aware of it, we keep an eye on it for sure, but we don’t try to be them,” Grams told The Associated Press. “We offer something that most people don’t, which is a legitimate space to sit down, enjoy and use it for a variety of different reasons.”

    But Kayes, of George Washington University, wonders if that strategy will be enough to keep Starbucks on top, or if customers who want a cozy or premium experience have already moved on to independent coffee shops or upscale chains like Blue Bottle.

    “In some ways, I think they are a victim of their own success,” Kayes said. “I do think that the aura of Starbucks as being something special and unique and exciting isn’t there anymore.”

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • USDA Data Casts Doubt on China’s Soybean Purchase Promises Touted by Trump

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    OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — New data the Agriculture Department released Friday created serious doubts about whether China will really buy millions of bushels of American soybeans like the Trump administration touted last month after a high-stakes meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

    The USDA report released after the government reopened showed only two Chinese purchases of American soybeans since the summit in South Korea that totaled 332,000 metric tons. That’s well short of the 12 million metric tons that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said China agreed to purchase by January and nowhere near the 25 million metric tons she said they would buy in each of the next three years.

    American farmers were hopeful that their biggest customer would resume buying their crops. But CoBank’s Tanner Ehmke, who is its lead economist for grains and oilseed, said there isn’t much incentive for China to buy from America right now because they have plenty of soybeans on hand that they have bought from Brazil and other South American countries this year, and the remaining tariffs ensure that U.S. soybeans remain more expensive than Brazilian beans.

    “We are still not even close to what has been advertised from the U.S. in terms of what the agreement would have been,” Ehmke said.

    Beijing has yet to confirm any detailed soybean purchase agreement but only that the two sides have reached “consensus” on expanding trade in farm products. Ehmke said that even if China did promise to buy American soybeans it may have only agreed to buy them if the price was attractive.

    The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the lack of Chinese purchases and whether farmers can still expect an aid package.

    The Chinese tariff on American beans remains high at about 24%, despite a 10-percentage-point reduction following the summit.

    Soybean prices fell sharply by 23 cents to $11.24 per bushel Friday. Ehmke said “that’s the market being shocked by the lack of Chinese demand that was confirmed in USDA data today.” Prices are still higher than they were before the agreement when they were selling for $10.60 per bushel, but the price may continue to drop unless there are significant new purchases.

    Before the trade agreement, Trump had promised to offer farmers a significant aid package to help them survive the trade war with China. That was put on hold during the shutdown, and now it’s not clear whether the administration will offer farmers aid like Trump did in his first administration.

    American farmers have been through this before after Trump’s first trade war with China. The trade agreement China signed with the United States in 2020 promised massive purchases of U.S. crops. But the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted trade between the two nations just as the agreement went into effect. In 2022, U.S. farm exports to China hit a record, but then fell.

    Soybean prices are actually still a little higher than they were a year ago even without China’s normal purchases of roughly one-quarter of the U.S. crop. That’s because this year’s soybean crop is a little smaller while domestic demand remained strong with the continued growth in biodiesel production.

    But farmers are dealing with the soaring cost of fertilizer, seed, equipment and labor this year, and that is hurting their profits. The Kentucky farmer who is president of the American Soybean Association, Caleb Ragland, has said he worries that thousands of farmers could go out of business this year without significant Chinese purchases or government aid.

    China is the world’s largest buyer of soybeans. China bought more than $12.5 billion worth of the nearly $24.5 billion worth of U.S. soybeans that were exported last year.

    But China quit buying American soybeans this year after Trump imposed his tariffs and continued to shift more of their purchases over to South America. Even before the trade war, Brazilian beans accounted for more than 70% of China’s imports last year, while the U.S. share fell to 21%, World Bank data shows.

    AP Writer Didi Tang contributed to this report from Washington.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Carbon Capture Pipelines Have Struggled to Advance. A Project in Nebraska Found Success

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    BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A multi-state carbon capture pipeline began operating in September, reducing emissions from Midwest ethanol plants and carrying that carbon dioxide gas to be forever buried underground in Wyoming — an achievement after years of complaints, lawsuits and legislation blocked similar efforts by other companies.

    Other projects prompted intense opposition, including one that has run up $1 billion in spending with no guarantee of success, but the Tallgrass Trailblazer Pipeline is being praised. The reason: community negotiations and financial support.

    “I wish all energy companies would treat communities with a lot more respect like Tallgrass did,” said Jane Kleeb, whose group Bold Nebraska has fought other carbon capture and oil pipelines.

    The Tallgrass pipeline has started moving emissions from 11 ethanol plants in Nebraska and one in Iowa to a site in southeast Wyoming, where the greenhouse gas will be buried 9,000 feet underground.

    The fermentation process to convert corn into fuel releases carbon dioxide. By capturing it before it’s released into the air, plants can lower their carbon intensity score, making the ethanol more attractive for refinement into so-called sustainable aviation fuel — a market some believe could climb to 50 billion gallons annually. The Midwest-based ethanol industry sees jet fuel as essential to its future, offsetting expected declines in demand for motor vehicle fuel as more drivers switch to electric vehicles.

    The federal government encourages carbon capture through lucrative tax credits to pipeline operators. The Biden administration wanted to encourage a practice that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the Trump administration has let the credits continue.

    “If an ethanol plant captures the carbon, it lowers their carbon index and they become a low-carbon fuel, and there’s a premium for that,” said Tom Buis, CEO of the American Carbon Alliance, a trade group. “And they can also produce sustainable aviation fuel out of it. Sustainable aviation fuel is a huge, gigantic market just waiting for someone to step forward and take it.”


    Routing a pipeline isn’t easy

    At least three other companies have proposed carbon capture pipelines in the Midwest, but aside from Tallgrass, only Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions is persisting — and it hasn’t been easy.

    Despite strong support from agricultural groups and the ethanol industry, Summit has dealt with persistent opponents who don’t want their land taken for the pipeline and fear a hazardous pipe rupture. Landowners sued to block the pipeline and sought help from legislators. South Dakota’s legislature banned the use of eminent domain for such lines.

    In response Summit has asked Iowa regulators to amend its permit so the company retains an option for a route that would avoid South Dakota.

    “Our focus remains on supporting as many ethanol partners as possible and building a strong foundation that helps farmers, ethanol plants, and rural communities access the markets they’ll depend on for decades to come,” Summit said in a statement.

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency oversees a rigorous process for underground carbon dioxide injection, involving permits for construction and injection and regulations to protect underground sources of drinking water, Carbon Capture Coalition Executive Director Jessie Stolark said. Typically, porous rock formations similar to a sponge will store or trap the carbon dioxide more than a mile underground, she said.

    Tallgrass had one big advantage at the starting point — it converted an existing natural gas line. The natural gas was put on a different pipeline as Trailblazer was retrofitted. The company built branches off the 400-mile mainline to connect to ethanol plants.

    But Tallgrass also took pains to engage with communities along its route.

    The company worked with people to get its project done “instead of trying to push it down our throat,” said Lee Hogan, chairman of the Adams County commission in Nebraska, whose home is a half-mile from the pipeline.

    It helped that Tallgrass worked with Bold Nebraska, a citizens group, to create a community investment fund that will make annual payments to organizations related to early childhood development, Medicaid-eligible senior care and food pantries.

    Tallgrass will make an initial $500,000 contribution followed by annual payments based on 10 cents per metric ton of carbon dioxide sent through the pipeline. The Nebraska Community Foundation, which will manage the fund, expects more than $7 million will be given out through 2035 across 31 counties in four states.

    It’s a unique arrangement, and a possible template for future projects, said Nebraska Community Foundation leader Jeff Yost.

    “I’m just really impressed that folks that could have just approached this purely as opponents have come together to find a really productive middle ground,” Yost said.

    Tallgrass spokesman Steven Davidson said the investment fund is just one piece of the company’s agreement with Bold, which he said emphasizes being cooperative and transparent, such as when surveying land and valuing easements.

    While lauding Tallgrass’ cooperative approach, Jack Andreasen Cavanaugh, who studies energy policy at Columbia University, said it may be hard to replicate the experience since few if any natural gas pipelines will be available for retrofitting, given increases in supply and demand for natural gas domestically and abroad. Tallgrass’ line crosses his family’s land in Nebraska.

    Still, companies can do better to engage and negotiate with communities, and that includes spending money, he said.

    Kyle Quackenbush, a Tallgrass vice president, said his advice to other pipeline companies is to listen.

    “I think the biggest advice we would have for people is to take those concerns seriously,” he said, “and figure out what it takes to be able to help people get comfortable and understand that this infrastructure is a benefit for their community and not something that they need to be afraid of.”

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Nebraska’s Proposal to Let Some Inmates Out Early Stirs Bipartisan Pushback

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    A decade ago, Nebraska’s corrections department allowed hundreds of inmates to leave prison early through a program that few — including judges, lawmakers and the public — knew existed.

    Corrections devised the early-release initiative as part of a larger, and ultimately scandal-plagued, effort to ease overcrowding in Nebraska’s packed prisons. Leaders scrapped the scheme shortly after probing lawmakers revealed it.

    Now, as the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services continues to grapple with overcrowding and converts one prison into an immigration detention center, it is trying to create a similar program and allow some inmates out into the community under intense supervision.

    It’s already prompting pushback, including from lawmakers in both political parties.

    “What you’re saying is, ‘OK, we don’t really think the judges knew what they were doing, or this Legislature (knew what they were doing) when they said what factors to consider. We just think, internally, NDCS can make those ultimate determinations.’ And I, respectfully, disagree with that,” said State Sen. Carolyn Bosn, a former prosecutor who chairs the Judiciary Committee.

    Bosn, a Republican from Lincoln, and State Sen. Terrell McKinney, a Democrat from Omaha, both said a program like this could have merit.

    But, echoing a criticism of the controversial program from the past, both said it should be created by the Legislature — not the department itself. They and others, including the state’s watchdog for corrections, also knocked the current proposal for its lack of details.

    “I’m not opposed to it, it’s just about the implementation and how it’s going to work,” McKinney said. “The less people in prison, I’m always for. It’s just how it’s executed and what are the stipulations around it.”

    Unlike with the previous initiative, the department is following a public process this time around.

    Corrections filed a notice on its proposal — dubbed PATH, or the Program for At-home Transition Housing — with the secretary of state’s office three weeks after Gov. Jim Pillen unveiled plans to turn the McCook Work Ethic Camp into a federal immigration detention center.

    A spokesperson for the department didn’t mention overcrowding or answer questions about any links between the proposal and the McCook center conversion.

    Spokesperson Dayne Urbanovsky said the PATH proposal was driven by the department’s “commitment to efficient and meaningful population management strategies, while improving reentry opportunities” for inmates.

    Nebraska’s prisons have long been some of the most overcrowded in the country. The system entered an overcrowding emergency in 2020 when its overall population exceeded 140% of its design capacity.

    It remains in that emergency, according to a recent report from the state’s inspector general for corrections, Doug Koebernick. The same report found that, depending on the metric used, Nebraska has either the most or second-most overcrowded prison system in the U.S.

    Overcrowding concerns fueled questions from McKinney and others about Pillen’s push to take the roughly 200 beds at the McCook center offline so that the prison could be used to detain up to 300 immigrants.

    In a letter to McKinney, the administration disputed the notion that the move would trigger an “overcrowding emergency.”

    “The addition of 300 criminal illegal aliens to the system will not put NDCS facilities anywhere near the 140% occupational capacity threshold needed to trigger an emergency declaration,” wrote Kenny Zoeller, director of the governor’s Policy Research Office.

    The state has since relocated the roughly 180 inmates previously housed in McCook, according to Urbanovsky. Last week, Pillen’s office announced that ICE inspectors had OK’d the center to start operating.

    McKinney drew a connection between the McCook center and PATH, the department’s current proposal.

    “Taking away that which was a facility for people who were transitioning, they needed something to try to backfill that,” McKinney said. “And that’s probably this program.”

    PATH bears some broad similarities to the program Corrections created in 2008.

    That program started small, with only eight inmates furloughed in fiscal year 2008, according to Koebernick. Initially, certain violent and repeat offenders were excluded.

    But that changed in 2010, the same year an internal policy directive allowed for violent offenders to be eligible. In fiscal year 2010, 58 inmates were furloughed through the program. That number ballooned to 435 in 2011.

    The program largely flew under the radar until a 2014 investigation by the Omaha World-Herald found that — independent of the furlough program — Corrections had mistakenly released dozens of inmates early. That prompted an investigation by a special legislative committee, which uncovered the so-called “Reentry Furlough Program.”

    Among those furloughed in 2011, about 120 had been convicted of violent offenses, including assault, robbery, assault of an officer and manslaughter, according to The World-Herald. Three had been convicted of murder.

    The revelations perturbed several judges who were unaware the program existed and who felt Corrections had overstepped, the newspaper reported.

    The legislative committee found the corrections department had developed the furlough program “outside of the law” and blurred lines between Corrections and the Parole Board, which is meant to serve independently.

    The committee recommended abolishing the program, adding that such an effort “should be created legislatively.”

    The department discontinued the program in 2015, according to Urbanovsky, and has not had a similar program since.

    For PATH, the department is following a formal rule-making process that provides a heads-up to lawmakers and allows some public feedback.

    However, few members of the public appeared to be aware of it during a recent hearing at Corrections headquarters in Lincoln.

    Many of the 10 people who testified had questions.

    “When I tried to look up information about the PATH program online, there was absolutely no information,” said testifier Shannon Roeder, who said her incarcerated husband told her about the proposal.

    The draft contains few answers.

    “The Inspector General’s office is taking no position on the PATH Program but would suggest that if NDCS does go forward with this program outside of the legislative process, that much more detail and specifics be included in the rules and regulations,” Koebernick testified.

    Inmates in PATH would be responsible for their own housing and daily living costs, according to the draft, and for their own health care coverage. They would live in “approved private residences” and keep full-time jobs or attend approved programming.

    Oversight by NDCS staff, such as a parole officer, would include reporting, curfews and employment verification. Participants could leave their residence only for “approved activities” and could be monitored electronically. No weapons, illegal drugs or alcohol allowed.

    “The program promotes stability, access to employment and services, and a smoother transition into the community,” the draft reads.

    As to who would qualify, the draft defines a participant only as “an individual nearing the end of their sentence, or with limited time to serve following commitment.”

    Jasmine Harris, director of public policy at the reentry nonprofit RISE, said the organization is always looking for ways for people to have successful reentry after incarceration.

    But this proposal needs “more meat on the bone,” she said.

    “This is a different pathway that they’re taking with this program, and we don’t know much about it, so just want to ensure that it’s a thoughtful process, that they are learning from any past mistakes and ensuring that it’s something that’s set up for folks as they’re coming home to actually succeed,” Harris said.

    Former State Sen. Steve Lathrop, who led the legislative investigation into the old program, reviewed the draft regulation as part of his role on the board of directors for RISE. He too noted the lack of detail, saying that crucial components of the program could be left to the discretion of the department’s director.

    “I’m not critical of having a furlough program, but I think that there needs to be criteria in the regulations so that the public knows who’s going to get on furlough,” Lathrop said.

    Bosn laid out several ways such a program could benefit the state and individual prisoners. It could be an incentive for people to work on programming or follow rules while incarcerated, she said. And it could help the state’s workforce and save taxpayer money.

    “There’s a whole bunch of different ways that you can market something like this,” Bosn said, “but I do think you want to make sure, if and when you put that ultimately forward, that you’ve really considered it from every single perspective.”

    Bosn said she wasn’t involved in the creation of the regulations and hadn’t seen them until the Flatwater Free Press sent her a copy.

    At least one critic of the old program is withholding judgment about the new proposal.

    In 2012, then-Lancaster County Attorney Joe Kelly had privately expressed his own concerns with the program to the then-director of corrections, The World-Herald reported. He encouraged the state to “seek specific legislative authority” for furlough.

    Kelly went on to serve as the U.S. attorney for Nebraska and is now the state’s lieutenant governor. He did not respond directly to an interview request but issued a statement:

    “The current proposed rule is going through the (Administrative Procedure Act) process and is not yet at the Administration’s desk. Once the rule reaches Gov. Pillen’s desk, he will then have an opportunity to approve or deny the change based on the merits.”

    Typically, regulations go to the attorney general for review after they have had a hearing. Then they go to the governor for approval.

    But in this case, the public may get another chance to weigh in. Urbanovsky said the department was “looking into” it after Flatwater found that only 28 days had passed between the state’s official notice and the hearing in October. State law typically requires 30 days.

    This story was originally published by Flatwater Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Former Lincoln, Nebraska, Schools Superintendent Did No Work While Receiving Emeritus Pay

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    When Paul Gausman announced his surprise retirement as superintendent of Lincoln Public Schools in December 2024, the district said he would be staying on in an as-needed advising capacity through June. And in that superintendent emeritus role, he would continue receiving his monthly salary.

    It doesn’t appear he did any work.

    A series of records requests submitted by the Flatwater Free Press shows Gausman didn’t exchange any emails with school board members, assistant superintendents or the interim superintendent from Dec. 28, 2024, to June 30, 2025.

    In response to questions from Flatwater, the school board’s president confirmed that Gausman — who earned $333,720 annually — was not needed during the transition.

    Few other details have emerged about the abrupt end of Gausman’s tenure with LPS, which culminated last month in the district naming interim Superintendent John Skretta as its new permanent superintendent.

    A national expert said Gausman’s emeritus designation — agreed to amid ongoing scrutiny of superintendent pay in Nebraska — differed from typical circumstances where a district taps an outgoing superintendent to serve in an emeritus role.

    LPS Board President Bob Rauner declined an interview request. But in a written statement, he said that Skretta and the rest of the district’s leadership team capably handled the additional workload, making Gausman’s input unneeded.

    “Dr. Skretta’s work was exemplary during the first six months of 2025 and he did not need any assistance, which is in part why the board decided to remove interim from his title and make him our superintendent,” Rauner wrote. “We are fortunate to have a dedicated and highly-skilled executive team at Lincoln Public Schools.”

    In a written statement, Gausman said he was proud to serve as superintendent, and he wished everyone in the district the best in the future.

    “In our agreement, the District wanted assurance that my expertise and experience would be available to them via an on-call basis, through the remainder of my term as Superintendent Emeritus,” he wrote. “I was happy to serve in that manner under that agreement.”

    The former superintendent joined LPS in the summer of 2022, after a four-month national search process that the district said included extensive recruiting and thorough background checks. When he started, his base salary was the highest of any superintendent in Nebraska.

    His resignation, announced in the middle of the school year and more than a year before his contract was up, was unexpected. At the time, Gausman said he wanted to explore other opportunities “after 20 years in the public eye as a superintendent of schools.” During his final board meeting as superintendent, Gausman touted the district’s accomplishments during his tenure, including growth in high school enrollment.

    “We have initiated positive programs to impact staff retention, recruitment and culture,” he said. “We have expanded early childhood programming and facilities, and there’s still more on the way to better serve our community.”

    After board members approved his negotiated retirement/resignation agreement, both they and Gausman repeatedly declined to answer questions from local media about his departure.

    Under the agreement, Gausman was placed on paid leave Dec. 27 and reassigned to superintendent emeritus status. The district agreed to pay him an additional $83,430 in separation pay in the form of retirement plan contributions. The document also said Gausman was prohibited from school property without permission from the district.

    In a press release, the district said Gausman’s emeritus role was designed to ensure a smooth transition and minimize disruption caused by his retirement.

    Rachel White, an associate professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Texas at Austin, said that each year, around 2,000 superintendents nationwide leave their positions. Of those, she estimated only about 10 end up in a superintendent emeritus role.

    Emeritus positions typically arise when a longtime superintendent retires and the successor is someone who could benefit from their coaching and institutional knowledge, White said. Gausman’s relatively short tenure with the district, combined with Skretta’s lengthy career in Nebraska education, buck that trend.

    “This is a unique case in that all of the puzzle pieces don’t match what we typically see for why a school board may choose to keep someone on in an emeritus position,” she said.

    Gausman’s time at LPS was far briefer than that of his predecessor, Steve Joel, who helmed the ship for 12 years before retiring. It was also briefer than his own time in Sioux City, Iowa, where he served as superintendent for 14 years before accepting the Lincoln role.

    But his tenure at Sioux City came under scrutiny in 2023 after it was revealed that the district had filed a complaint with the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners alleging he had tried to bribe incoming school board members to back his pick for board president. At the time, the LPS board expressed continued confidence in Gausman.

    Gausman later filed a lawsuit against several Sioux City school board members, alleging they had violated open meetings laws by improperly calling two closed sessions to discuss filing the complaint against him. A judge ruled that one session violated the law, while the other did not, according to reporting from the Sioux City Journal.

    In January 2025, a month after Gausman’s retirement announcement, the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners found probable cause to proceed with two more ethics complaints against Gausman filed by the Sioux City school district.

    The Flatwater Free Press submitted an open records request seeking emails sent by LPS school board members or associate superintendents that mentioned Gausman from Nov. 1, 2024, to Dec. 31, 2024, in an attempt to learn more about conversations conducted in the weeks before and after the retirement announcement.

    Lincoln Public Schools released 178 pages of emails and attachments, but many were either substantially or completely redacted. The district cited exceptions to Nebraska’s open records law concerning attorney-client privilege and personal information.

    While Rauner praised Gausman’s accomplishments during his final meeting, Rauner and other board members declined to speak to the press afterward. Emails indicate the board decided not to speak to the media in the interest of fairness after Gausman said he would not do any interviews.

    “There’s sort of a balance here, of holding school board members accountable for effective and efficient use of taxpayer dollars, while also understanding that this is a human being that we’re talking about,” White said. “And there may be things that happened that cannot be talked about for legal reasons that sort of justify the decision that was made.”

    Superintendent pay remains a hot-button issue in Nebraska. Earlier this year, state Sen. Dave Murman, who chairs the Legislature’s Education Committee, introduced a bill seeking to cap superintendent pay at five times the salary and benefits of a first-year teacher. The bill faced opposition from some lawmakers who characterized it as government overreach on an issue that local districts should decide.

    In April, State Auditor Mike Foley released a report stating the median and average superintendent salaries in Nebraska are well above their national counterparts. Foley declined to comment on Gausman’s retirement/resignation agreement.

    White noted that schools across the U.S. face complicated financial considerations, navigating unpredictable shifts in state and federal funding even as their core mission remains the same.

    “This may very well be a good use of dollars,” White said. “But I would hope that the school board was able to have these conversations about how this money is being spent in the context of the broader sort of budget problems that our public schools are facing.”

    In March, Gausman filed for an LLC to start his own educational consulting firm, InspirED Vibe Leadership. In addition, he works as a consultant for two other firms — Zeal Education Group in Delaware and McPherson & Jacobson in Nebraska. His predecessor at LPS, Joel, has worked at McPherson & Jacobson since 1996. Gausman joined the firm in 2007.

    When asked whether the district felt the superintendent emeritus agreement with Gausman was necessary in retrospect, Rauner said each situation is unique, and the board has to make decisions based on information it has available at the time.

    “At that time, that was the decision the Board made based on the information and circumstances,” he wrote in an email. “It is impossible to predict what future circumstances or Board decisions will be.”

    This story was originally published by Flatwater Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Nebraska Joins Trump Program to Use Public Money for Private School Tuition

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    OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — After years of failed attempts, Republicans in Nebraska have enacted a measure that uses taxpayer dollars to pay for private school tuition, despite voters repealing a newly-passed state law that would fund private school tuition with state dollars.

    Republican Gov. Jim Pillen signed an executive order opting the state into a federal school choice tax credit program included in President Donald Trump’s tax and budget bill passed in July.

    “I am not opting this in, I am cannonballing it into the state of Nebraska,” Pillen said as he announced the move Monday at Catholic school in Lincoln. He was joined by Republican U.S. Reps. Mike Flood and Adrian Smith, both of Nebraska, who supported the federal budget bill and private school scholarship plan.

    The measure is remarkably similar to one the state Legislature passed in 2023 to allow corporations and individuals to divert millions of dollars they owe in state income taxes to nonprofit organizations, which would in turn award that money as private school tuition scholarships. Lawmakers axed the measure the following year after opponents gathered far more signatures than was needed to ask voters to repeal it. The Legislature then passed a new law funding private school scholarships directly from state coffers.

    The new federal law that Pillen opted into allows individual taxpayers to direct up to $1,700 in federal income taxes owed to scholarship-granting groups to be used for eligible K-12 private school expenses. But unlike Nebraska’s 2023 proposal, the federal measure allows even high-income households to receive public money for private school costs. Eligibility extends to families earning up to 300% of the area median gross income, according to the Nebraska State Education Association — the state’s largest teachers union.

    “Families making more than $200,000 a year are eligible to receive a voucher funded through these tax credits,” NSEA President Tim Royers said.

    The private school-funding move in Nebraska highlights the growing tension around the country between the will of voters and their elected representatives. Earlier this year, Nebraska lawmakers were accused of subverting the will of the people by limiting voter-approved paid sick leave. In Missouri, lawmakers have taken steps to repeal voter-approved initiatives on abortion rights and paid sick leave and imposed more requirements on ballot initiative campaigns.

    When presented directly to voters, school choice expansion efforts have largely faltered. Nebraska voters in November repealed the school choice law passed earlier that year. A proposed constitutional amendment in Colorado that would have established schoolchildren’s “right to school choice” also was defeated. Kentucky voters rejected a measure to enable public funding for private school attendance.

    “Today’s decision by Gov. Pillen undermines the clear will of Nebraska voters, who just rejected state-level vouchers at the ballot box,” Royers said.

    Pillen countered that opponents are wrong when they say the publicly-funded private school scholarship scheme will take money away from public schools, saying the federal school choice measure comes “at no cost to the state.”

    “We have to have great public schools, and we have to have great St. Teresa’s,” Pillen said Monday. “And because of this legislation, both can win.”

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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