Should public funds be used to fund scholarships for private school students? That’s a core question that Nebraskans will try to solve when they vote on Referendum Measure 435 this November.

Today’s lesson: Legislative Bill 1402. Class is in session.  

First introduced to the Nebraska legislature in January and signed by Governor Jim Pillen in April, Section 1 of LB1402 annually provides for $10 million from the state treasury designed to fund scholarships that would offset some or all of the cost for eligible students to attend private schools, religious or otherwise, in Nebraska.  

Some Nebraska students had already been receiving publicly-funded scholarships under the Opportunity Scholarships Act, which was passed last year. Similar to about two dozen other initiatives around the country, that bill provided for $25 million of taxpayer money to allow eligible families to select schools for their children to attend. Existing scholarship recipients, and their siblings, would be first in line for scholarships under the new proposal; from there, the state would develop a "priority system" to determine which students would be considered next.

This bill is essentially a substitute for the previous one, with the new $10 million price tag – $100 million total over ten years – coming from the state treasury, rather than tax dollars. Nebraska is one of four states with so-called “school choice” measures on the ballot this year – and Nebraska’s is the only one that could eliminate a scholarship program that already exists. 

Proponents of this updated bill have tried to keep it off the ballot, but just last month the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the referendum was constitutional, and now it’s up to the Nebraska populace to decide the proposal’s fate.  

Supporters of this bill say that it empowers eligible families to choose a school that is the best fit for their child. Opponents say that this plan would divert funds from and lower the quality of Nebraska’s many public schools, and that public funds should be used to fund public education, not private. 

Supporters of this bill, including Republican State Senators Lou Ann Linehan, the primary sponsor, and Dave Murman, say that the education scholarship program is benefiting thousands of Nebraska students, and repealing this measure would take those scholarships away.  

Meanwhile, Support Our Schools Nebraska is the organization leading the effort to repeal, collecting more than 200,000 signatures just to get the measure on the ballot. They argue that public schools serve 90% of all Nebraska children, and most counties don’t even have a private school for eligible families to consider sending their children to. 

It’s important to note the language presented on the ballot itself: it’s not a vote for or against, it’s a vote to either repeal or retain. A vote to retain means this private school scholarship proposal will go into effect, while a vote for repeal means this plan will be eliminated.  

By educating yourself on every aspect of the ballot, you put yourself in the best position to have your voice properly heard this election year.