Nebraska joins Trump program to use public money for private school tuition

"I am not opting this in, I am cannonballing it into the state of Nebraska,” Pillen said as he announced the move Monday at Catholic school in Lincoln. He was joined by Republican U.S. Reps. Mike Flood and Adrian Smith, both of Nebraska, who supported the federal budget bill and private school scholarship plan.

The measure is remarkably similar to one the state Legislature passed in 2023 to allow corporations and individuals to divert millions of dollars they owe in state income taxes to nonprofit organizations, which would in turn award that money as private school tuition scholarships. Lawmakers axed the measure the following year after opponents gathered far more signatures than was needed to ask voters to repeal it. The Legislature then passed a new law funding private school scholarships directly from state coffers.

The new federal law that Pillen opted into allows individual taxpayers to direct up to $1,700 in federal income taxes owed to scholarship-granting groups to be used for eligible K-12 private school expenses. But unlike Nebraska's 2023 proposal, the federal measure allows even high-income households to receive public money for private school costs. Eligibility extends to families earning up to 300% of the area median gross income, according to the Nebraska State Education Association — the state’s largest teachers union.

“Families making more than $200,000 a year are eligible to receive a voucher funded through these tax credits,” NSEA President Tim Royers said.

The private school-funding move in Nebraska highlights the growing tension around the country between the will of voters and their elected representatives. Earlier this year, Nebraska lawmakers were accused of subverting the will of the people by limiting voter-approved paid sick leave. In Missouri, lawmakers have taken steps to repeal voter-approved initiatives on abortion rights and paid sick leave and imposed more requirements on ballot initiative campaigns.

When presented directly to voters, school choice expansion efforts have largely faltered. Nebraska voters in November repealed the school choice law passed earlier that year. A proposed constitutional amendment in Colorado that would have established schoolchildren’s “right to school choice” also was defeated. Kentucky voters rejected a measure to enable public funding for private school attendance.

“Today’s decision by Gov. Pillen undermines the clear will of Nebraska voters, who just rejected state-level vouchers at the ballot box,” Royers said.

Pillen countered that opponents are wrong when they say the publicly-funded private school scholarship scheme will take money away from public schools, saying the federal school choice measure comes “at no cost to the state.”

“We have to have great public schools, and we have to have great St. Teresa's,” Pillen said Monday. “And because of this legislation, both can win.”