'Chair's Amendment' Strips Scholarship Funding for Thousands of Nebraska Kids

by John Gage

A provision to give scholarships for students to attend private schools will likely be stripped from the state’s budget bill after multiple Republican senators threatened to join Democrats in filibustering the bill if the measure was not taken out.

Appropriations Chair Rob Clements filed a “chair’s amendment” to the budget on Wednesday that does not include $3.5 million in funding meant to provide one year of scholarships for students who were a part of a previous K-12 scholarship program. The amendment comes directly from the chair, meaning neither the Appropriations Committee nor the Legislature will directly vote on taking the scholarship money out of the budget.

The money would have provided a “gap year” of scholarships for at least 2,500 Nebraska students who are under 185% of the federal poverty line until a new federal scholarship program starts in 2027.

Currently, 4,000 students are receiving scholarships from funding left over from now-defunct state scholarship programs. Those funds are set to run out by the end of the school year.

Clements said he had no choice but to put up his amendment that takes the provision out of the budget.

“Not my desire, but I need to get the budget passed,” Clements told The Plains Sentinel. “Even if I put it in, there was sentiment to take it out eventually anyway, after several hours of going around in circles.”

He added that the provision “would not have survived cloture.”

An amendment to strip the scholarship funding out of the budget previously failed 23-17.

Last week, two Republican state senators, Merv Riepe and Tom Brandt, said they would filibuster the budget if the scholarship funding was not taken out during the second round of debate. “The voters told us they did not want a voucher program and we need to honor that voice of the people,” Riepe said.

Clements said multiple Democrats, who voted for cloture on the first round of debate, would not commit to voting for cloture on the second round. A school choice advocate told The Plains Sentinel that more Republicans were planning on switching to vote against cloture if the provision stayed.

Brandt and Riepe were joined by Republican State Senators Stan Clouse, Myron Dorn, Jana Hughes, Fred Meyer, Tanya Storer, and Dave Wordekemper in voting to strip the funding out during the first round of debate. Many of the same senators went on to initially support cloture.

Clements said he was not happy with how things developed.

“Very disappointed as this would have been only for low-income families,” he said. “There are thousands of non-public families who pay property taxes to schools that do not educate their families.”

The Nebraska State Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union, celebrated the development on Twitter. “Good news to share! The $3.5M for vouchers has been removed from the state budget—for now,” the union said. “Thanks for standing up for Nebraska public school students—your voice made a difference.”

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Lynne Walz also praised Clement’s budget amendment. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - Nebraskans do not support their tax dollars going towards funding private schools. I’m glad to see this change in the budget,” she said.

State Sen. Rob Dover, who has championed the scholarship provision and is on the Appropriations Committee, said he did not support Clements’s decision to ignore the committee.

“My district voted to support private schools. This was those kids’ last chance,” he said. “These families simply do not have the money to pay for private school. I do not appreciate the fact that the Chairman can basically disregard the vote of his committee.”

Lauren Gage, with Opportunity Scholarships of Nebraska, said the amendment was risking the education of thousands of Nebraska students.

“If state senators adopt the budget amendment as is, it will put the education of thousands of Nebraska’s most vulnerable children and families at risk— the very same type of children and families that will be served by the childcare subsidy program.”

Lawmakers are set to pick up the amendment and budget debate on Thursday. Dover said the fight over the scholarships might not be over.

“I would say that the budget and the amendment is not passed until it has 33 votes. We will see how it all plays out.”

John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.

(Photo courtesy of the Nebraska Legislature)