Outside the State Capitol Friday morning a group opposed to using public funds for private schools had petitions in their hands and is now moving full steam ahead to collect signatures to put the issue before voters in November.
“Last summer more than 117,000 Nebraskans signed the petition so they could vote on whether they wanted to divert taxpayer dollars to pay for private schools. Well this is a repeat performance,” says Jenni Benson, President of Support our Schools Nebraska and the Nebraska Education Association.
Last month lawmakers passed LB1402, a bill that spends $10 million per year in state money to support private school scholarships. “Nebraskans will not let stand the legislature’s cowardly action of passing yet another voucher scheme bill designed to block citizens from voting on the issue.”
Benson says they only have 67 days to collect 90,000 signatures to put this issue on the November ballot “This is a clarion call asking voters to seek out and sign the Support Our Schools petition to protect Nebraskans’ right to vote on this issue and to protect our public schools.”
Benson admits the timeline is a huge challenge and time is tight, but says it’s clear to her that Nebraskans want to vote on the issue.