Nebraska’s top election official says public school advocates have collected enough signatures to ask voters to repeal a up-to-date law that would require taxpayers to fund private school tuition.
Support Our Schools organizers announced in July that they had collected more than 86,000 signatures from registered voters – far more than the nearly 62,000 needed to put the repeal on the ballot. In addition, signatures from 5% of registered voters in at least 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties had to be collected to be eligible for the ballot.
Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen confirmed Friday that just over 62,000 signatures had been verified and the 5 percent threshold had been reached in 57 counties.
It is the second time before the November election that public school advocates have had to embark on a petition drive to reverse the employ of public money for private school tuition. The first happened last year, when Republicans, who dominate Nebraska’s officially nonpartisan legislature, passed a law allowing businesses and individuals to divert millions of dollars they owe in state income taxes to nonprofit organizations. Those organizations would then award the money as scholarships for private school tuition.
Support Our Schools collected far more signatures than it needed to ask voters to repeal that law last summer. But the effort was thwarted by lawmakers who support the private school funding bill when they repealed the original law and replaced it with another funding bill earlier this year. The up-to-date law eliminated the tax credit system and simply funds private school scholarships directly from the state treasury.
Since this move repealed the first law, last year’s successful petition was also rendered meaningless. The organizers had to collect signatures again to stop the funding program.
Nebraska’s up-to-date law follows the example of several other conservative Republican states – including Arkansas, Iowa and South Carolina – and introduces forms of private school choice, from education vouchers to education savings programs.
Both opponents and supporters of the measure to finance private schools in Nebraska assume that the dispute will end up in court.
Evnen said county election officials are still in the process of verifying the signatures on the petitions, and therefore the repeal measure has not yet been officially approved for the ballot. When the total number of signatures required reaches 110%, officials will stop verifying signatures and certify the petition.
The deadline to certify November ballots is September 13.
