Support Our Schools
Lincoln -- The Nebraska Supreme Court today ordered the Secretary of State to end his shenanigans, respect the will of the people, and put the Repeal of LB1402’s voucher scheme on the ballot.
“We thank the state Supreme Court for protecting one of the most important rights we have as Nebraska citizens – the right to petition our government for the redress of grievances,” said Jenni Benson, Support Our Schools Nebraska.
“At every turn, those wanting to use public funds to pay for their private schools have fought against the right of Nebraskans to vote on this issue,” said Benson. “These voucher proponents want to impose their costly private school voucher scheme on Nebraska taxpayers. But public school supporters from all across our state joined together to protect our public schools with two successful petition drives and a winning defense of the petition process in the Nebraska Supreme Court.”
“We join Nebraska’s public school educators in celebrating the Supreme Court’s decision to preserve the right of Nebraskans to vote on whether to direct their taxpayer dollars to private institutions. We applaud their decision to maintain the long-held, intentional and careful process of appropriating funds by the Legislature, an important tenet of effective fiscal management by the state of Nebraska,” said Dr. Rebecca Firestone, executive director of the OpenSky Policy Institute. “We are confident our neighbors will research this issue carefully before November and vote to repeal Section 1 of LB 1402, as they have in state after state.”
“It has been a hard-fought battle to ensure Nebraskans get to vote on the Repeal of LB1402 – and it’s going to get worse when Senator Linehan, Betsy DeVos and their billionaire buddies pour MILLIONS into ads in their attempts to mislead voters about LB1402, our public schools, students and educators,” said Tim Royers, Support Our Schools Nebraska and president of the Nebraska State Education Association.
“These voucher proponents have made it clear they will stop at nothing in their effort to take public funds away from our public schools,” said Benson. “But Nebraskans support public education – they know their local public schools are the heart of their communities. Our coalition of Nebraska organizations will continue to push back and tell the truth about the damage LB1402 will do to our local public schools, communities, and students.”
“The stakes are far too high to give anything less than we can – for this fight is about the legacy of public education and future generations of Nebraskans,” said Royers. “We are asking Nebraskans to vote to REPEAL LB1402 to keep public funds for public education. Our public schools serve 90% of all children in Nebraska. They accept all students and our public school teachers work daily to provide every one of their students with a quality education that will help them succeed.”
Since last summer, the Support Our Schools Nebraska coalition has collected more than 200,000 signatures from Nebraskans who believe voters should decide whether public funds should be used to pay for private schools.
Several Nebraska organizations are advocating for the Repeal of LB1402, including the League of Women Voters of Nebraska, the Nebraska PTA, Nebraska Farmers Union, OpenSky Policy Institute, Holland Children’s Movement, Stand For Schools, the ARC of Nebraska, the Nebraska Civic Engagement Table, the Nebraska State Education Association and more.