Gov. Jim Pillen says Nebraska will opt in to federal scholarship tax credit program – Nebraska Public Media
By Jolie Peal 
, Reporter Nebraska Public Media News
Sept. 29, 2025, 4 p.m. ·
During an appearance at St. Teresa Catholic School in Lincoln on Monday, Gov. Jim Pillen announced that Nebraska will opt in to a federal tax credit for those donating to scholarship-granting organizations for private school scholarships and extra resources for any student in need.
The tax credit was passed as part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” earlier this year. Taxpayers can donate up to $1,700 to qualifying scholarship-granting organizations and receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit. The program starts in 2027.
“As I've said forever, we're never, ever going to give up on a kid anywhere. And we have to have great public schools,” Pillen said. “This Big, Beautiful Bill has the potential to help in all circumstances. Certainly going to help our private schools immensely, but it can in our public schools as well.
“I've said forever, since I've been your governor, we've got to get more than our fair share of federal dollars home. We got a billion to our healthcare, and we're getting others for roads and so forth. This is gigantic for education.”
To qualify for a scholarship, a family must have an income below 300% of the area median income. In Nebraska, the median income is about $76,000, according to the U.S. Census in 2024. Families making about $228,000 would qualify. Scholarships can be used for certain school expenses for both public and private school students, including tuition, books and tutoring.
Nebraska non-profit Stand For Schools said in a statement that opting into the program goes against the will of Nebraskans.
“Last year, Nebraskans made their voices heard loud and clear by rejecting private school vouchers at the ballot box,” Dunixi Guereca, executive director of Stand For Schools, said in the statement. “This decision ignores the will of Nebraska voters and the decades of research showing how to actually move the needle to improve outcomes in schools.”
The state legislature passed a law in 2023 creating a dollar-for-dollar credit program. Nebraskans got enough signatures to place that on the ballot for 2024. Before voters could weigh in, the legislature repealed that program and replaced it with a $10 million allocation for private school scholarships in the 2024 legislative session, which voters repealed in the election later that year.
The Nebraska State Education Association shared similar concerns in a statement.
“The governor’s announcement today aligns Nebraska with a federal initiative that bypasses the public process and undermines the public schools that serve the vast majority of our state’s students,” Tim Royers, NSEA president, said. “It marks a troubling departure from the values that have long defined Nebraska’s commitment to equitable, high-quality public education.”
Pillen said the ballot initiative process is flawed and that Nebraskans support school choice.
“The ballot initiative, in my humble opinion, needs work,” Pillen said. “In Nebraska, any ballot initiative, we're Nebraska nice, we never say no, we vote for things.”
Other organizations, like Opportunity Scholarships of Nebraska and the American Federation for Children, supported Pillen’s announcement.
“This scholarship program will give hope to countless kids across the state of Nebraska, and OSN stands ready to help serve and guide parents to access the best education for their children,” Opportunity Scholarships of Nebraska said in a statement.
Rep. Adrian Smith sponsored the provision. Smith said he had started working on it with former Indiana Rep. Jackie Walorski, who died in a car accident in 2022.
“When the candidate for governor of Virginia said the parents shouldn't have any say on the curriculum in the schools of Virginia, I found that particularly chilling,” Smith said. “That gave me more motivation here to work on this so that parents and families can be empowered, especially those in impoverished communities.”
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