Nebraska voucher advocates are trying to head off a referendum because they know they will lose. Senator Lou Ann Linehan has introduced a bill intended to fund vouchers and block a referendum, thus preventing Nebraskans from voting on whether they want vouchers.
Senator Linehan is working with Betsy DeVos’s advocacy group American Federation for Children.
Of course, they don’t want to let the public decide! Vouchers will lose!
In every state referendum on school vouchers, they have always been defeated. The public wants public tax dollars to go to public schools! The public does not want to subsidize the tuition of students who attend private and religious schools. In every state that has vouchers, most are claimed by students who already attend non-public schools. Worse, as Michigan State’s Josh Cowen has demonstrated, students who leave public schools with vouchers fall far behind their public school peers.
And of course, vouchers drain funding from public schools, attended by the vast majority of children.
From: Brooke @ Stand For Schools<info@standforschools.org>
Date: Mon, Apr 15, 2024 at 5:05 PM
Subject: The Fight Continues: LB 1402
Dear Friend,
LB 1402, Senator Linehan’s private school voucher bill, passed through general and select file debate last week. With that, LB 1402 could become the first bill in Nebraska’s legislative history to overturn a law with a referendum on the ballot for November, bypassing your right to vote.
We urge you to please contact your Senatorand tell them NO to LB 1402 and to let Nebraskans vote on public funds to private schools in November!
Contact Your Senator!
Instead of sending public dollars to private schools, which are under no obligation to serve all children, tell your Senator you support the public schools that 9 out of 10 Nebraska students attend, and so should they.
Contact your Senatorand tell them NO LB 1402 and that you support public education!
Thank you for your continued support of Stand For Schools and Nebraska public education!
The Stand For Schools Team
Follow us on social media for legislative updates, Nebraska public education stories, and more!
Stand For Schools
211 N 14th Street
Lincoln, NE 68508
United States
Diane Ravitch's blog 
in Tennessee yesterday, a state representative was recorded speaking to a group of voucher supporters. He told them explicitly that the money to fund the voucher program would come from funds created from public money.
He also admitted to them that there were no more than 3000 open slots in existing private schools. In other words, voucher money would be taken from public schools and given mostly to existing private school students.
No wonder this always fails at the ballot box.
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Roy,
This is what will happen in Tennessee: most of the vouchers will go to students already enrolled in private schools. New religious schools with uncertified teachers will open, to get the voucher money. No improvement but a large block of affluent parents benefitting.
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in the recording, the representative essentially claims precisely that. He counts this as a good thing. Sick.
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vouchers are BAD in so many ways! For one, “VOUCHERS ARE THE BIG STEAL!”
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35% of Nebraskans live in rural communities. I hope their state representatives are fighting this.
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