By Canon Rath
North Platte Post
NORTH PLATTE, NEB – The Support Our Schools Nebraska petition signing took place Thursday with many residents coming out to Cody Park Shelter in North Platte to learn more about the petition signing and others signing the petition. The petition signing was sponsored by the North Platte Educations Assocation. The event took place from 4 p.m. - 6 p.m. central time.
Support Our Schools Nebraska is a coalition to get LB753 repealed. According to District 24 State Senator Jana Hughes, LB735, also known as the Opportunity Scholarship Act, provides a non-refundable tax credit for donations to Scholarship Organizations who administer scholarship to lower income students to attend the private school of their choice.
Support Our Schools Nebraska has to have a referendum petition drive to get signatures to put it on the ballot for ballot for November 2024 for the repeal of LB753. “LB753 is tax credit program for folks who owe income tax, but they get to donate 50% of whatever they owe to a scholarship granting organization which would go to private school tuition,” said Nebraska State Education Association President Jenni Benson.
The organization wants to get the petition signed so it can be placed on the ballot and that should be up to the Nebraska voters. “What we are asking Nebraska voters to do is to sign the petition so we can just get it on the ballot,” said Benson. “Were taking this to the voters of Nebraska because we believe that public dollars should only be used for public schools.” Support Our Schools Nebraska feels that private schools should not be funded by public funding or receive a tax credit of 50%. “Considering if anybody else would donate to a school foundation, you get a 7% deduction not a 50% tax credit,” said Benson. “They get $25 million this year and they get to take 10% off the top for administrated fees, if you wanted to donate to a scholarship organization or to your particular private school, then donate, get the 7% deduction like everyone else.”
Petition signings for Support Our Schools Nebraska are happening all across the state. The signings started two weeks ago for the organization and alone had 25 this past week. They have over 25,000 NSEA members who received a petition in the mail this past week to try to have family and friends to sign it in the effort to get the repeal of LB753 on the ballot. In the past two weeks, the petition has been receiving signatures throughout the state of Nebraska. “We have well over 10,000 signatures which has been amazing,” said Benson. “All of those signatures have been by volunteers who are going out into their communities.” The organization is looking to gain 90,000 signatures while certifying 55 counties. The signatures and certifying the counties have to be done in 90 days of the bill being signed which is about the end of August.
In the state of Nebraska, 48 out of 93 counties do not have a private/parochial school. Lincoln County has to have 2,351 certified signatures for it to count for the certification process. Keith County needs to accumulate 557 certified signatures for the county to be certified. To sign the petition, you must registered to vote in the county you want to sign in. “You have to be registered and we have petitions for every county, each county has to be done separately,” said Benson.