Senator Steve Erdman Contact information

Steve Erdman

Born on November 21, 1949, in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, Steve Erdman is an American politician who has been serving in the Nebraska Legislature from the 47th district since 2017.

Education

Erdman is a graduate of Bayard High School (1968) and Nebraska Western Junior College where he earned an associate degree in 1971.

Political Career

In 2016, Erdman was elected to the Nebraska Legislature. As a state senator, Erdman has been particularly critical of education policy. In February 2017, he proposed a bill that would remove funding from the Nebraska Master Teacher program. Along with state senator Steve Halloran, in April 2017 Erdman was one of three senators that opposed new rules requiring Nebraska schools to expand accommodation to students with children including breastfeeding accommodations.

In August 2017, the University of Nebraska (UN) became embroiled in a controversy when a graduate student and an undergraduate student entered into a political argument related to the undergraduate’s involvement in Turning Point USA, a conservative education advocacy organization. After a video of the event was released, Erdman, Halloran, and state senator Tom Brewer were outspoken in criticism of the grad student and UNL that it was hostile to conservative viewpoints. A group of 70 UN faculty accused the senators and Nebraska governor Pete Ricketts of being politically motivated in their criticism and seeking to damage the university. The graduate student lost funding as a result of the dispute, a move that was heavily criticized by AAUP, the faculty Union. The senators proposed a bill that would restrict the ability of the university to govern itself with regards to speech issues. The Senators also called for an outside agency to study campus attitudes towards conservatives. The university suggested using Gallup for this study, but the senators felt that Gallup could not be unbiased and insisted that the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) be used instead. FIRE would determine the graduate student was within her rights and should not have lost her position. The senators fight with the University continued for much of 2018. In March, they proposed an amendment to strip $17 million of funding from UNL, which ultimately failed.

Personal Life

Erdman is married to Cathy Jean Pfeiffer since November 26, 1971. They have three children: Craig, Philip, and Nicholas; and nine grandchildren.