The School Voucher Zombie Bill

It's baaaaaccck! Despite not one, but TWO successful signature drives AND a successful ballot initiative to overturn the legislature's decision to give tax dollars to private schools via a school voucher scheme, the legislators are determined to ignore the will of the people and are bringing it back AGAIN. Former Sen Louann Linehan previously pushed this through and surprise, surprise, her successor, republican Sen. Tory Sorrentino of Elkhorn, has brought it back like a zombie as LB509. They didn't even RENAME it, folks.  It's time for this bad idea to finally die and for legislators to listen to Nebraska voters- what a concept!

The proposed vouchers will never cover the full cost of educating a child. Voucher supporters know voters voted against it. So why are they willing to try over and over and over to impose this on us anyway?

1) Generous tax breaks for the wealthy: Rich folks (aka their donors) can reduce their tax liability by donating 100k per person to fund religious school “scholarships” (vouchers) to schools that align with their own theology. It is very telling that the NE Gop senators keep bringing back the same bill over and over claiming to want to “help children”, without actually wanting to fund it outright. They only like the idea when it’s a scholarship act because then rich folks can get 2 things they want at once:  1) to strengthen the religious/private school of their choice and 2) to write it off as a 1:1 tax break. That’s a more generous tax break than any other donation you can make. You don't even get that kind of tax break when you donate to a food bank.

2) Create the illusion of helping families( without actually having to help): School voucher supporters know it will reduce school funding, and that private school vouchers offer false promises to families. A myriad of research nationwide has shown that private schools do not perform any better than public schools. There is nothing magical about a private school that increases learning. Only evidence-based practices and highly qualified teachers can do that. And guess what- those private schools are not held to the same standards, they pay teachers less, and they don't allow unions. Weird, huh? One of the most recent states to enact a voucher scheme is our neighboring state of Iowa. In a very short time period, Iowa schools have already faced  budget cuts due to voucher funding. As an example, onect in Iowa had to cut 50 staff positions including 19 teacher positions and increase class size. This particular bill would be allowed to balloon up to 10$million annually in just a few years.

3) They think voters are stupid: They also are claiming that opponents of the school vouchers lied and confused voters. (No. That's projection. Lying and confusing is what the GOP did in regards to the abortion rights ballot initiative last year- and it worked.) They are following Steve Bannon's playbook of “Flooding the Zone with s%#@". They hope you won't notice the millions of dollars it takes to fund a parallel and redundant second school system that’s also allowed to discriminate and reject students. 

The truth is that Nebraskans support their local schools. Recent research from the “2024 Nebraska Rural Poll Research Report” shows that 66% of rural NE voters want to see “somewhat more” or “much more” investment in K-12 education. Vouchers are the opposite of that. By reducing the funding base, this reduces the amount of taxes to all public schools. We already have a severe teaching shortage. People don't want to enter the profession. For example, last year, there were 108 unfilled special education positions in the Omaha metro, and the metro universities graduated only *26* new special education teachers in the same time frame. There were also 35 unfilled math positions in the same region, and only *5* new math teachers graduated from the area universities. How exactly will any of that get better when you cut funding to public schools? Without people graduating, how do they even think they will find teachers to teach in these private schools?

4) Union Retaliation: This is a blatant relation against the teacher’s union that has successfully shown voters how vouchers would hurt their local schools (especially rural ones because there are no private schools in wide swaths of the state, thus vouchers send money straight to big city private schools). It is no secret that Pillen and GOP senators see unions as a thorn in their side, and the teachers union is one of the few big ones left. They are counting on wearing down voters and the union until people just stop mounting a fight. They would much prefer that Nebraska follow Iowa's lead again and strip unions of almost all their power. (link 1 and link 2) Can't have pesky PEOPLE getting in the way of BUSINESS. Workers are expendable in their minds. (look for more articles from us on anti-union bills soon)

Contact your state senator and tell them vouchers (disguised as scholarships), in any form, are not right for Nebraska and that you're wise to the game that's being played.