LINCOLN — One day after overcoming a filibuster, a bill to sidestep a referendum on the state’s Opportunity Scholarship Act overcame another filibuster Wednesday night to advance to final-round consideration.
Legislative Bill 1402 advanced from second-round debate on a 30-15 vote, one “yes” vote less than Tuesday’s vote to advance the bill, 31-12, from initial debate.
State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, who has devoted much of her legislative career to passing a school choice law, said she had no concerns about the bill gaining final approval next week.
On both Tuesday and Wednesday, LB 1402 garnered just enough votes, 33, to invoke cloture, shut off debate and advance the measure. It takes 25 votes to advance or pass a bill.
Three state lawmakers who voted for cloture didn’t vote to advance the bill on Wednesday. Sens. Myron Dorn of Adams and Merv Riepe of Ralston voted “no” on advancement, and Sen. Teresa Ibach of Sumner was present and not voting.
Dorn told the Examiner after Tuesday night’s vote that he was not yet sure if he would vote to invoke cloture next week.
Pillen signature assured
Final consideration of the bill is scheduled for April 18, the last day of the 2024 session. Gov. Jim Pillen, who supports school choice, has said he will sign it.
Linehan has said that she introduced LB 1402 to avoid a multimillion dollar campaign fight over the ballot initiative, and to pull out a controversial tax credit offered to donors to the scholarship program.
Sen. Linehan lodged a complaint in February that the Susie Buffett-headed Sherwood Foundation and the Weitz Foundation were charities improperly giving money to a ballot question committee that was fighting the Opportunity Scholarship Act.
The Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission, in a response a few days later, said the question was a matter for the State Legislature to resolve via a state law.
The state teachers’ union, the Nebraska State Education Association, which pushed the successful referendum petition drive on the Opportunity Scholarship Act passed last year, has pledged to continue its fight against the latest version.
That includes another petition drive to put LB 1402 on the November ballot, and a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the bill, which opponents argue violates the clause against “appropriation” of public funds to non-public schools.
Nebraska became the 49th state to provide some form of school choice by passing the Act in 2023.
Under LB 1402, $10 million a year would be given to the State Treasurer to hand out as vouchers to attend private or parochial schools, with a priority for kids from low-income families.
More than 1,000 students are expected to get Opportunity Scholarships from last year’s Act later this month. The grants, funded by taxpayers who earmarked a portion of their state income tax liability to the Act, average $5,000, but can be up to $11,000 each.
Rejects that ‘the people’ wanted a vote
During debate on Wednesday night, Linehan said she “didn’t buy” that “the people” had risen up to force a public vote on school choice on the November ballot.
The signature-gathering campaign, which cost about $1.8 million or about $15 per signature counted, was financed in large part, Linehan said, by the teachers’ union as well as foundations financed by Susie Buffett, an Omaha philanthropist and Warren Buffett’s daughter, and the Weitz Family of Omaha.
The NSEA-backed Support Our Schools group has countered that “out-of-state billionaires” funded the effort to frustrate and block its signature gathering efforts last year. That was an apparent reference to Betsy DeVos, a member of a billionaire family and a former U.S. Secretary of Education under then-President Donald Trump.
DeVos and her husband donated $3.25 million of the $3.3 million raised in 2022 by the school choice group, American Federation for Children, according to Nebraska political disclosure records.
Much of the $710,000 that the AFC spent on Nebraska legislative races in 2022 came from DeVos’ family.
Drop ‘the tricks’
Omaha Sen. Wendy DeBoer, a leading opponent of the latest Opportunity Scholarship bill, said that school choice advocates should drop their “tricks” to nullify a public referendum on the issue.
“Let’s give the people of Nebraska their voice back,” DeBoer said.
“Let’s give them all the information … our best arguments, and let them decide,” she said.
Added Plymouth Sen. Tom Brandt, “We should wait to see what the people decide.”
The NSEA, in a press release Tuesday, was more harsh, calling it a “slap in the face” to the 117,415 Nebraskans who signed the petition so a public referendum could be held on the Opportunity Scholarship Act.
Sen. Linehan lodged a complaint in February that the Susie Buffett-headed Sherwood Foundation and the Weitz Foundation were charities improperly giving money to a ballot question committee that was fighting the Opportunity Scholarship Act.
The Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission, in a response a few days later, said the question was a matter for the State Legislature to resolve via a state law.
Nebraska Examiner reporter Zach Wendling contributed to this report.
