Petitions turned in seeking to stop Nebraska’s redesigned school choice law

Jenni Benson, president of the Nebraska State Education Association and sponsor of the Support Our Schools ballot referendum, leads supporters in transporting more than 86,000 signatures to the Nebraska Secretary of State. July 17, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

LINCOLN — Nebraskans appear likely to vote this November on whether to repeal the revamped version of Nebraska’s first major school choice legislation in a generation.

Public schools advocacy group Support Our Schools on Wednesday announced that it was turning in more than 86,000 signatures gathered from people seeking a chance to weigh in.

The group had only 67 days to collect the roughly 61,000 valid signatures it needed from 5% of registered voters, including 5% in at least 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties.

Why 67 days? State senators passed Legislative Bill 1402 on the last day of the legislative session in April. And Gov. Jim Pillen, a school choice supporter, held the bill before signing it.

Support Our Schools then worked with its lawyers on petition language and organized an effort to gather signatures, the second in as many years.

The second go-round

The same group gathered signatures last year to put the original version of the school choice law, Legislative Bill 753, on the ballot. That law was replaced this year by the new LB 1402.

The group used 2,800 volunteers to gather signatures this summer, after using 2,100 last year, said Jenni Benson, president of the Nebraska State Education Association.

“We want it to go to the ballot, and that’s what’s going to happen,” she said Wednesday. “We’re not going to get it taken this time.”

Once signatures are verified, the Secretary of State’s Office said it would work with the Attorney General’s Office to verify that constitutional and statutory requirements are met.

Cynthia Peterson, of the League of Women Voters, said she wore the same red Support Our Schools T-shirt this week that she did the first time the group turned in petitions in August 2023.

She said Wednesday felt “like deja vu.”

School choice supporters changed the law

LB 1402 will replace LB 753’s tax credit for donating to scholarships for needy students attending private K-12 schools with a school voucher program.

This is the first year of students attending private schools using up to $25 million-a-year scholarship tax credits. LB 1402 creates a $10 million-a-year voucher program.

Supporters of both efforts have said they hope to increase the amount appropriated over time and to increase the number of students eligible, while still favoring families in need.

The author of both bills, State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Omaha, has said LB 1402 responded to critics of the earlier tax credit. She has also acknowledged wanting to sidestep the first ballot push by passing the new legislation.

Linehan said the petition effort “hurts our kids by taking school choice away from families that need it the most.” She said repealing the law would hit low-income families hard.

She said 48 states provide state support for private K-12 schools, including neighboring Iowa, which revamped its approach to let state funding follow the student to a chosen school.

Voucher supporters did not organize a “Decline to Sign” campaign, as they did in 2023.

They have said they expected Support Our Schools and the Nebraska State Education Association to collect enough signatures.

“But no matter how much money they spend or how many signatures they collect, supporters of school choice won’t stop fighting for parents rights and for our kids,” Linehan said.

Linehan criticizes Support Our Schools

Linehan again criticized teachers unions and Democratic donors Susie Buffett and Barbara Weitz and her daughter, Katie, for funding a network of nonprofits backing Support Our Schools.

Buffett is one of the top funders of programs supporting additional needs of public schools through her foundations. Barbara Weitz is a University of Nebraska regent who does similar work.

Benson said Linehan, along with U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., and former Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and other school choice funders are the ones who deserve scrutiny.

She defended the Nebraska teachers funding unions at the local, state and national levels, saying they “care about all kids.” She said private schools can choose which students they serve.

Support Our Schools has raised $1.37 million and spent more than $1.2 million for this second petition effort, according to the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission.

“When Senator Linehan … does all these tricks to block Nebraskans from voting, it doesn’t work,” Benson said. “Don’t poke the bear. They poked the bear, friends.”

Organizations say people should get to vote

Brad Christian-Sallis of the Nebraska Civic Engagement Table, one of the nonprofits Linehan criticized, said “some politicians and wealthy special interests” tried to block the vote.

He said people “stepped up and made sure that we got this work done.” The Rev. Dr. Karla Cooper noted that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law 60 years ago this month.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of ignorance,” Cooper said at the Support Our Schools event. “If we don’t get this right, wrong will always be the lot of our lives.”

Rebecca Firestone of OpenSky Policy Institute, another of the groups Linehan named, said most of the families that benefit from voucher programs were already attending private schools.

Petition organizers said nine out of 10 Nebraska students attend public schools. They stressed potential harm to rural students from LB 1402, saying 48 of the state’s 93 counties have no private schools.

Lina Traslaviña Stover, executive director of the Heartland Workers Center, said immigrants often need help from their public schools to learn English and assimilate.

Andy Grosshans, a school board member in Waverly, said that Nebraskans don’t want to spend tax dollars on private schools and that the state doesn’t hold such schools accountable.

“Diverting those funds from public schools is only going to damage the public schools,” he said. “The taxpayers cannot afford to support two school systems.”

Linehan: State can afford voucher program

Linehan and others have said the state can do both. Lawmakers last session added new funding for public schools, including a $1 billion fund being used to provide a baseline of state aid and special education, among other priorities.

Pillen has considered using some of that funding for possible offsets to help fund property tax relief during a promised special session this summer on property taxes, starting as early as next week.

Benson and Tim Royers, the NSEA’s president-elect, said they will be watching how Pillen and others approach Pillen’s proposal to have the state assume more K-12 costs.

Royers said most Nebraskans have voted  on school choice proposals before, and each time they have sided with maintaining their public schools.

“Our opponents are somehow trying to capture the narrative that they’re the ones trying to do this for all kids,” Royers said. “Their goal is to undermine public education and profit (from private schools).”

Jeremy Ekeler, executive director of a scholarship-granting organization under LB 753, Opportunity Scholarships of Nebraska, said in a statement that his group is already helping students.

More than 2,000 students have applied for funds through his organization, one of several that provide them, and has awarded 508 scholarships.

He and spokeswoman Lauren Gage said the organization hopes to award more than 1,500 by September. They shared statements from parents saying they are excited about the program.

One of them, Brandon Keeler, said he knows that many families can benefit from the help. He encouraged people to preserve and potentially expand the scholarships “ because our younger generation is who will make this world a greater place.”

Stats provided by the organization show about 45% of the scholarship applicants were rural and 55% were urban. The group says 30% of its applicants are students of color.

Tom Venzor, executive director of the Nebraska Catholic Conference, called the ballot measure “frustrating beyond measure.”

“It demonstrates a blatant disregard for thousands of students in need of more educational options, and it undermines the fundamental rights of parents as the primary educators of their children,” he said.

The Legislature could change the law again

Benson was asked what Support Our Schools would do if the Legislature tried to pass another version of the school choice law during a special session to sidestep the initiative.

She said the group would work to make sure Nebraskans on all sides of the political aisle communicate with state senators about the importance of letting Nebraska’s second house vote.

“We always have those concerns,” she said. “The more those 49 people … hear from people, the better off we are. Use your voice.”

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