Dirty tricks abound as Nebraska Republicans try derailing referendum to save public education

Organizers load boxes of signed petitions seeking to get a measure on the November ballot that would repeal a new Nebraska law providing taxpayer money for private school tuition, July 17, 2024, in Lincoln, Neb. | Margery Beck / AP

Taxpayer-funded vouchers for private schools are back on the ballot this November in Nebraska. Voters in that state will decide whether public funds can be allocated to voucher programs for use in private and religious schools at the expense of the public school system on Election Day.

Teachers, students, and parents are all clamoring for a “Yes” vote on Measure 435, which would repeal the private school voucher program in Nebraska and redirect the funds allocated for the program back to enhancing accessible public education for all.

The latest struggle over public school funding began when Gov. Jim Pillen signed a law establishing a tax credit voucher system for “Opportunity Scholarships” in May 2023. The law, modeled after a similar provision in neighboring Iowa, provided that private donors in Nebraska could make fully tax-deductible contributions towards a fund that would be used to issue vouchers for private and religious education.

The law would effectively make paying for private schools a legal alternative to paying taxes to the State of Nebraska. Funds collected through this mechanism would be issued to students as vouchers disguised as “scholarships” that could be used to pay tuition at any approved private or religious school.

Another provision of the bill prevents the state from exercising authority over private school operations, including curriculum and methods for accepting or rejecting student applicants. Such practices open the door for publicly-funded segregation, anti-scientific teaching, and religious indoctrination by private institutions.

Dodging democracy

Supporters of the voucher program have done everything they can to avoid a public vote on the issue, which a number of signals suggest is deeply unpopular with the majority of Nebraska voters. After public school supporters gathered the signatures needed for a ballot referendum to repeal the school voucher program, the legislature pulled the trick of repealing the law that created the program and replacing it with a nearly identical new law.

The new version of the law attempted to bypass voters by reframing the school voucher program as a direct legislative appropriation. Led by the Nebraska Catholic Conference, supporters of the bill swap scheme have argued that direct appropriations are not subject to ballot repeal under the Nebraska state constitution.

This effort was dealt a major defeat in recent weeks, however, with the Nebraska Supreme Court issuing a unanimous decision that effectively nullified the legislature’s attempt to avoid a ballot referendum, ruling that the new version of the law is also subject to referendum.

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evman responded to the court’s decision by decertifying the ballot initiative to repeal the law. Evman argued that since the new school voucher law was upheld by the Nebraska Supreme Court, it immediately went into effect to repeal the May 2023 version of the law which the citizen-led ballot initiative had targeted. If the law is already repealed, the ballot initiative to repeal it is void. Clearly, there is only one logic at play here: Prevent the public from having the opportunity to vote to protect public school funding at all costs.

Undeterred, the grassroots campaign Save our Schools quickly mobilized again to gather new signatures needed for a revised ballot initiative, successfully filing sufficient signatures for initiative “Measure 435” in the weeks before the election. Measure 435 will repeal the latest version of the voucher program.

Nine out of ten students in the state attend public schools. Voters have rejected ballot initiatives to establish a system of private school vouchers on three previous occasions and may ultimately defeat the deeply unpopular measure yet again in the coming weeks.

Target #1: Quality public education for all

Nebraska voters are seeking to avoid the kind of damage inflicted by right-wing extremists on the public school system in neighboring Iowa, where Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a school voucher program in 2023.

Pushed through by newly-elected Republican midterm legislative supermajorities, the bill allocates up to $7,598 of taxpayer funds per Iowa family per year for private school tuition, at a total cost of $345 million annually. Private schools in Iowa are not subject to state oversight and have free reign to select among student applicants based on any criteria they choose.

Like Nebraska and Iowa, religious and other private schools are taking greater and greater shares of the resources away from public schools in Ohio. Last year, legislators in the state expanded eligibility for a similar “scholarship” voucher scheme to 450% of the poverty line, e.g. a household income of $135,000 or less for a family of four. Even those above that threshold are eligible for 10% of the maximum voucher amount.

As of last March, just over 87,300 “scholarships” have been awarded in Ohio, for a total of $394 million. The vast majority of recipients are already attending private schools, so the vouchers are not “opening opportunities,” as supporters claim.

They are simply subsidizing the revenues of private schools and eroding public education. Some private schools in Ohio have actually raised tuition to equal the average amount of the voucher. Rural areas, where so much of the GOP support comes from in Ohio, are not as able to take advantage of these programs because the private schools are located in suburban and urban areas where their developers can make more revenue.

Target #2: Teachers and their unions

The struggles in Nebraska, Iowa, and Ohio represent only the latest battles in a broad coordinated attack by the far-right and its allies on public school funding. These assaults have another target, as well: workers’ organizations. Union density among public educators is among the highest of any field of employment in the United States, with over 70% of public school educators represented by a union.

Increased militancy among teachers’ unions in the wake of COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement has led to successful organizing campaigns. The result has been improvements in learning conditions for students and long overdue increases in teacher pay and benefits in schools across the country.

These advances by the teachers’ unions have been countered by fierce and determined attacks of the fascist right wing, including repugnant xenophobic and transphobic smears meant to discredit public school teachers and their unions. The ultimate goal of the right wing remains the complete dismantling of the public education system, and along with it the growing political power of the teachers’ unions.

By shifting the costs of education and training away from the state and onto families, right-wing politicians and the finance capital interests they represent ultimately seek to extend the profits of the capitalist class by forcing workers to pay for ever larger portions of the training their jobs require.

Under the guise of “free choice,” right-wing anti-public school propaganda absolves business interests from any responsibility for teaching the skills from which they will ultimately reap tremendous profits.

The right wing has largely accomplished this task in the case of state-funded universities and colleges, where tuition costs have skyrocketed in recent decades and public subsidies have all but disappeared. Now, they want to extend this process to public primary and secondary education.

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CONTRIBUTOR

David Hill

David Hill is a member of the Mike Gold Writer’s Collective. He follows labor, LGBTQ rights, policing, and other issues. He is a member of the National Writers Union and Freelance Solidarity Project.

Anita Waters

Anita Waters is Professor Emerita of sociology at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and an organizer for the CPUSA in Ohio.