It looks like Nebraska voters will decide next year whether to use taxpayer money to fund scholarships for tuition to private schools.
Support Our Schools, a coalition led by the state teachers union, launched a drive this summer to force a referendum on LB 753, the Opportunity Scholarships Act.
The group on Wednesday submitted petitions with 117,000 signatures, That’s nearly double the roughly 60,000 valid signatures needed to make next year’s ballot, but short of the number needed to suspend implementation until then.
LB 753 is funded by a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for donations to scholarship organizations of up half of the tax liability with a max of $100,000 per year for businesses and individuals and a million dollars for estates and trusts.
It would allocate $25 million a year over the first two years starting next year, and up to $100 million annually after that.
The fight matches public school advocates and has seen powerful public education unions square off with heavily funded school choice groups backed by conservatives trying to leave their mark on education policy.
Public school advocates have blasted the measure as a “school voucher scheme” that will hurt the state’s K-12 public school system.”
Nebraska State Education Association President Jenni Benson says it needs to be repealed because “calling it an opportunity scholarship is putting lipstick on a pig. It’s a voucher scheme.”
The American Federation for Children, founded by Trump administration Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, poured more than $500,000 into Keep Kids First Nebraska, a group set up to encourage people not to sign the petition.
It used the money to fund a blizzard of ads and a recent mass mailing to registered voters from Republican Gov. Jim Pillen – not on his official letterhead — urging voters not to sign the petition.
Pillen did issue an official statement after the petitions were turned in that blasted the teachers union and identified a silver lining in the number of signatures collected.
Pillen said “The union bosses running this political campaign failed to gather enough signatures to suspend this great program,” and he promised a hard fight if the repeal measure does make the ballot.