By Aaron Sanderford
LINCOLN — Officially, Gov. Jim Pillen said he held a news conference Wednesday to celebrate the state’s first investments toward a pledged $1 billion Education Future Fund.
Unofficially, Pillen highlighted these new investments in public education during a battle over a petition effort to stop Nebraska’s new tax credit that was established for those funding scholarships for children attending private K-12 schools.
Pillen and other supporters of the tax credits contained in Legislative Bill 753 are pushing back against efforts by the Nebraska State Education Association and public school supporters to label the program a long-term threat to funding for public schools.
“That’s not true at all,” Pillen said about public school funding. “We have added through this priority funding $305 million more in education funding. … The Opportunity Scholarship (Act) is $25 million off the top of state funding through a tax credit.”
Asked to clarify, Pillen said, “That money comes off the top line of the budget of six and a half billion dollars of revenue from the state. It has no tie-in with education at all.”
Education Future Fund
The Education Future Fund pledges $1,500 in baseline state aid to every public school district, including smaller, often rural districts that had received little or no state funding. The fund also pledges state funding to supplement available federal dollars to pick up 80% of K-12 special education costs.
The NSEA and Support Our Schools Nebraska have argued that this new funding from the state, while welcome, is not guaranteed to continue to build to the pledged $1 billion amount, nor is it guaranteed to last through the next economic downturn.
They point to the Legislature’s own fiscal estimate for the impact of LB 753, which predicts state aid could decrease by nearly $12 million if students transfer from certain aid-receiving public school districts to private schools.
This Opportunity Scholarship program offers donors dollar-for-dollar tax credits of up to $100,000 a year for individuals and corporations and up to $1 million a year for estates and trusts.
The new tax credit caps the total revenue that can be claimed at $25 million annually for the first three years. The total could rise by the tenth year to $100 million a year. Opponents have argued this threatens the pool of funding for public schools. Defenders of the law say the same could be argued of any tax credit.
Path to vouchers?
Jenni Benson, president of the NSEA, argued that public school costs would not necessarily decrease because 20 Lincoln or Omaha or Norfolk kids leave their public school to attend a private one. And she said other states have started with tax credits on the way to voucher programs.
“They say this isn’t tax money, but it is,” Benson said. “The general fund funds public education. … It will affect public school funding because it has to if it continues to grow.”
Pillen, asked after the news conference about the assertion that the tax credit for scholarships is a first step toward shifting public money toward private schools, said that the tax credit for scholarships program poses no threat.
Minutes later, he recorded a short cell phone video with Walter Blanks Jr. of American Federation for Children, which has bankrolled school choice in Nebraska and other states, said, “In Nebraska, it’s time to fund students.” Blanks then said, “Not systems.” The federation is backed by local and national school choice donors including former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
In response to a question Wednesday, Pillen said voters can decide if they want to sign the petition and where they stand on LB 753. Still, he said he hopes they will support the legislation, because they elected the senators who passed it.
He said voters would not put his $1 billion pledge for the Education Future Fund or support for state aid to K-12 in jeopardy if they reject the Opportunity Scholarships law.
Groups jousting over truth
Keep Kids First, a group trying to persuade Nebraskans not to sign the petition, argues that Nebraska was one of the last two states nationally to approve a law offering a form of school choice.
Keep Kids First and Support Our Schools accused one another last week of misleading the public about what the initiative petition would do. Essentially, it would put the future of LB 753 on the general election ballot in 2024. Support Our Schools receives much of its funding from the National Education Association and the NSEA.
Representatives of both organizations have said that they do not intentionally spread misinformation, though each offered video examples of circulators or petition blockers offering inaccurate information to people considering signing a petition.
Circulators have until Aug. 30 to submit roughly 61,000 valid signatures of registered voters. Petition drive organizers often gather tens of thousands more than they need, in case signatures are rejected during the verification process.