Opponents of Nebraska plan to use public money for private school tuition seek ballot initiative

Source: Associated Press

Opponents of Nebraska plan to use public money for private school tuition seek ballot initiative

BY MARGERY A. BECK
Updated 12:50 PM EDT, August 30, 2023

Organizers of an effort to have Nebraska voters weigh in on whether to use taxpayer money to pay for private school tuition scholarships said Wednesday they have more than enough signatures to put that question on the November 2024 ballot.

The Support Our Schools effort turned in 117,000 signatures to the Nebraska Secretary of State, who must now verify them. That’s nearly double the roughly 60,000 valid signatures needed to make the ballot, and organizers are confident they have met that goal.

“This bill needs to be repealed,” Jenni Benson, a Support Our Schools Nebraska sponsor and president of the Nebraska State Education Association, said at a news conference Wednesday. “This wildly successful petition effort has shown that Nebraskans agree.”

The effort was launched even before Nebraska lawmakers passed a bill this spring to funnel millions in taxpayer money from public coffers to scholarships for private school tuition. Support Our Schools was funded mostly through public education unions and individual donations, while public school teachers and advocates volunteered their time to collect signatures at fairs, farmers markets and on street corners across the state.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/school-choice-ballot-petition-nebraska-8e0468ca91e5cc44a94204ab20b5c622