'This fight is not over': Critics rally against Nebraska law funding private school scholarships (2024)

LINCOLN — Two days after the Nebraska Legislature narrowly passed an “end run” bill to appropriate $10 million per year for private school scholarship funds, hundreds of protesters promised Saturday to challenge the new law.

Many of the protesters had backed a voter referendum that aimed to repeal a similar law. The group gathered outside the State Capitol to criticize lawmakers for supporting Legislative Bill 1402.

Jenni Benson, president of the Nebraska State Education Association, said passing the bill was a “shameful and cowardly act” that went against the will of the voters.

“This fight is not over,” Benson said.

LB 1402 would appropriate $10 million to scholarship funds for private and faith-based schools for each of the next three years. Aimed at providing “school choice” options for K-12 students, the measure circumvents the voter referendum in November because it repealed the 2023 law that it targeted — LB 753. That bill allocated $25 million in tax credits for donations to the same scholarship funds.

Public school educators and other critics have contended that state funding for private school scholarships, whether direct or indirect, risks depleting funding for public education.

Benson said opponents to LB 1402 are considering two options: a petition drive to repeal LB 1402 and a lawsuit to challenge its constitutionality. She said they are seeking legal opinions, and expect to make a decision sometime next week. She said she favors pursuing both options.

“If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it all,” she said.

Shortly after Gov. Jim Pillen signed LB 753 last year, a new group called Support Our Schools Nebraska launched a petition drive to force a vote on repealing the bill. That three-month drive gathered over 117,000 signatures, with roughly 91,000 of those signatures verified by the Secretary of State’s Office, more than needed to qualify for the November ballot.

If a new petition drive launches to repeal LB 1402, the group again would have 90 days until mid-July to collect petitions, starting from Thursday when the Legislature adjourned.

Much remains uncertain about a new referendum, including whether the previous referendum will remain on the ballot now that LB 753 is set to be repealed. Jackie Ourada in the Secretary of State’s Office said officials are working with the Attorney General’s Office to determine this.

Other questions about a new referendum involve possible constitutional concerns, since direct appropriations like the ones planned in LB 1402 are not subject to being repealed by a referendum under the Nebraska Constitution. State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Omaha, who introduced both LB 1402 and LB 753, said she believes such a referendum would be unconstitutional.

LB 1402 itself could be deemed unconstitutional via a legal challenge, based on another section of the state constitution that dictates the Legislature cannot appropriate public dollars for private schools. Opponents raised this argument during LB 1402’s floor debates, but supporters contended that past cases indicated that LB 1402 would be constitutional.

Linehan said Thursday that she was puzzled by the continued opposition to LB 1402. She said the bill addressed previous concerns about LB 753’s tax credits by removing them. She also disagreed that the legislation would deplete public school funding, pointing out that the Legislature has also passed bills in recent sessions to increase state support for public schools.

“I don’t know at this point what their problem is,” Linehan said.