Public school advocates in Nebraska have successfully gathered enough signatures from registered voters to challenge a new law that diverts taxpayer money to fund private school tuition, as confirmed by Nebraska’s Secretary of State Bob Evnen. The group Support Our Schools announced that they collected over 86,000 signatures, surpassing the required 62,000 signatures. Additionally, signatures were obtained from at least 5% of registered voters in 57 out of 93 counties, meeting the threshold for the repeal initiative.
This is the second instance in preparation for the upcoming November election where public school advocates had to mobilize a signature campaign to reverse the use of public funds for private school tuition. Last year, state lawmakers, predominantly Republicans, passed a bill allowing for the redirection of state income taxes to nonprofit organizations for private school scholarships. Although Support Our Schools gathered sufficient signatures to challenge the initial law, legislators replaced it this year with a new law directly funding private school scholarships from state funds.
Nebraska’s enactment of this private school funding law aligns with similar initiatives in other conservative Republican-led states such as Iowa, Arkansas, and South Carolina. Both opponents and proponents of the Nebraska legislation anticipate legal challenges ahead.
The certification of the ballot measure for the November election is pending final verification of signatures by county election officials. Once the count reaches more than 110% of the required signatures, certification will proceed. The deadline for certifying the November ballot falls on September 13th.