In Nebraska, School Vouchers Are Back On The Ballot
From Forbes.com
In Nebraska, supporters tried to escape a taxpayer vote, but taxpayer-funded school vouchers are back on the ballot. Opponents had 67 days to collect 61,621 signatures. Yesterday, they submitted 86,000.
In May of 2023, Governor Jim Pillen signed “Opportunity Scholarships,” a tax credit voucher program, into law. The “Opportunity Scholarships” would have been vouchers good for any approved private or religious school. They would have been funded by private donors, who would get dollar-for-dollar tax credits for money they contributed. In other words, they could help fund a private school in place of paying taxes to the state.
The bill also included a standard “hands off clause,” indicating that even though the private school is accepting voucher money, the state may not exercise any authority over the school and how it operates (including which students it accepts or rejects).
But the program faced widespread opposition, and a petition drive, spearheaded by Support Our Schools Nebraska, set out to collect the signatures necessary to force the issue to go before voters.
At the end of August, they announced that they had 117,000 signatures—more than enough (roughly 10% of all Nebraska voters). The issue was headed for a November 2024 ballot.
No voucher program has ever survived the ballot box. So voucher supporters tried another approach.
LB 1402 repealed the Opportunity Scholarship Act and launched a new school voucher program. The new bill came from Senator Lou Ann Linehan, who also authored the Opportunity Scholarships Act. Governor Jim Pillen approved the bill on April 25.