At the beginning of the year, Governor Pillen made it clear that he wanted every child to have an opportunity to receive the best education possible. This not only meant providing more funding for public schools but also finding a way for low-income families to access private schools if that was the best option for their children.

For years, we have allowed public school students to transfer between public schools (option enrollment) to allow each student to be in an educational setting that best suits their needs. In Lincoln County, approximately 70% of the students attending public school in the Maxwell District are “net transfer” students. Over one-third of the students in Hershey Public Schools are net transfer students, as are about one-third of the students attending McPherson County School in Tryon. Although there may be many reasons for this trend, it is clear that the parents of these students see value in moving their child to the school that best fits their learning style. However, many parents also believe that having their children in a private or parochial school is best for them. For that reason, the Governor and 33 members of the Legislature felt that providing a mechanism for children of low-income families to obtain scholarships to attend private or parochial schools made sense. In fact, prior to the passage of LB753, Nebraska was the only state without some kind of state support for this to happen.

Given all the misinformation floating around, I want to take some time to outline what the LB753 does and how the scholarship program works.

LB753 provides for a Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO) to accept contributions from individuals, corporations, and trusts to be used for funding scholarships for low-income students wanting to attend a private or parochial school. The donor would receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit, not to exceed 50% of their current year’s state income tax liability. However, they would not be able to deduct that donation from their Federal income tax return. Once an SGO receives an application to fund a grant, they would confirm with the Department of Revenue that funds are still available. If so, the donation would be accepted, and the donor would receive their tax credit.

The SGOs must allocate scholarship funds based on the neediest applicants first. No more than 25% of the funds can be carried over from year to year should there not be enough qualified applicants. Any funds in excess of 25% would be returned to the state’s General Fund. This is not a voucher program, the state does not make any direct payments to any private school, and the SGO cannot limit educational scholarships to only one qualified school.

I worked with four of my colleagues during the session to make improvements to the bill and increase accountability. One such change is requiring an annual audit to be provided to the Department of Education. Senator Linehan was very open to working with us, and in the end, I believe this is a good bill that helps fulfill the goal of getting every student in the state access to the best educational environment. This is neither an assault on our public school system nor is it an attack on teachers. This is all about students and educational opportunities.

Some are claiming that this bill takes money away from public schools. This is simply false! This year, the Legislature increased funding to public schools by $1.309 billion. Annual funding was increased by $309 million, and $1 billion was set aside to ensure that sufficient funding would be in place should future revenues be reduced. The initial funds allocated to the Opportunity Scholarship Fund is $25 million in the first year. This program will be closely monitored to ensure that it provides the outcome that the Legislature intended. I am hopeful that it is given a chance to work.

Please continue to contact me on this and other issues at mjacobson@leg.ne.gov, or feel free to call my office 402-471-2729. My door is always open!