Opponents of NE's taxpayer-funded school voucher plan claim enough signatures to take issue to ballot box
Fox News
Nebraska's Support our Schools initiative claims to have enough signatures for a statewide referendum on allowing school vouchers to be funded by taxpayers.
"This bill needs to be repealed," Jenni Benson, a Support Our Schools Nebraska sponsor and president of the Nebraska State Education Association, said at a news conference Wednesday. "This wildly successful petition effort has shown that Nebraskans agree."
The effort was launched even before Nebraska lawmakers passed a bill this spring to funnel millions in taxpayer money from public coffers to scholarships for private school tuition. Support Our Schools was funded mostly through public education unions and individual donations, while public school teachers and advocates volunteered their time to collect signatures at fairs, farmers markets and on street corners across the state.