As expected, a signature drive to repeal Nebraska’s new and controversial “opportunity scholarships” law providing income tax credits for donations for scholarships for private schools has qualified for next year’s general election ballot.
Supporters had submitted 117,000 signatures – nearly twice the required 61,000 – to Secretary of State Bob Evnan last month and Evnan announced yesterday that county election officials across the state had validated nearly 92,000.
The effort began this summer after the Legislature approved giving dollar-for-dollar tax credits to businesses, individuals, estates and trusts who donate to organizations that grant private school tuition scholarships. The credits can be as high as $100,000 for businesses and individuals and up to a million dollars for the others.
The Save Our Schools coalition, funded largely by the Nebraska State Education Association teachers’ union, led the petition drive – which got the signatures of more than 5% of the voters in 64 counties.
NSEA President Jenni Benson says its “overwhelming success sends a clear message to the governor and state lawmakers: Nebraskans want to vote on the issue of diverting public tax dollars to pay for private schools.”
While the new law doesn’t directly appropriate taxpayer dollars to private school vouchers, the tax credits from donations would otherwise go to the state general fund – up to $25-million dollars the first 2 years and eventually up to $100-million annually.
Supporters say it helps underprivileged students who have few other choices for an underperforming or toxic public school environment. They deny charges that it will hurt funding to public schools, pointing to the legislature increasing state aid to education by over a billion dollars – mostly from federal pandemic recovery dollars.
The signature-gathering campaign was bitter with Support Our Schools and the pro-scholarship Keep Kids First exchanging charges of improper behavior by petition circulators and signature “blockers.” The incendiary language continued yesterday with Keep Kids First issuing a statement saying “The teachers union was willing to say and do anything to take educational freedom away from Nebraska families, so it is no surprise they gathered enough petition signatures to qualify for the ballot.”