Sen. Lou Ann Linehan’s LB 364 was debated yesterday. It is a bill that would create tax credit scholarships for poor children whose parents want a chance to send their child to a private school. It was filibustered for a full eight hours and the cloture vote was taken. It fell five votes short of the thirty-three votes needed. Sen. Linehan joined the legislature the same time I did. This was the sixth time she has introduced this bill and it has died in committee or from a filibuster every time. I am confident she will continue to introduce it. Nebraska continues to be one of two states that have no form of school choice. (aka; parents deciding how their tax dollars will be spent for their child’s education)

The tax credit scholarship would have “cost” the legislature five million dollars in lost income tax revenue. No tax payer would be allowed to use this tax credit for more than fifty percent of their tax liability. There was an amendment planned for the bill that would have put a sunset provision in the law, automatically ending the program in a few years unless reaffirmed by another vote of the legislature.

The average cost of a year of tuition at a Nebraska private school is about $4,000. Assuming someone wished to make a donation to the charity granting the scholarship to pay for one child’s private school education for a year, they would have to owe the state of Nebraska at least $8,000 in income taxes to start with. The Nebraskans who would participate in this are the sort of folks who are already paying a lot of taxes. We are a high tax state so it’s no surprise that we already have a lot of different tax credits in Nebraska’s tax code. But this is the only one I know of that not only helps someone lower their tax liability, it also helps a poor kid get a better education. Sadly, a number of senators who themselves can afford private schools for their own children voted against this bill. 

The various teachers unions along with the leadership of a number of large public school districts in Nebraska have become ever-more detached from the desires of ordinary families on this and other issues concerning their child’s education. Parents with children in an under-performing public school want options. I believe the vote taken yesterday is going to make for some really tough questions for a number of re-election campaigns, and it should. 

Please check out how your senator voted: https://www.nebraskalegislature.gov/bills/view_votes.php?KeyID=7452