The Support Our Schools campaign is making another push to put private school scholarships in the hands of voters.
The Support Our Schools campaign is making another push to put private school scholarships in the hands of voters.
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The Support Our Schools campaign is making another push to put private school scholarships in the hands of voters.
Petition drives in Nebraska are making a final push ahead of the July 3 deadline.
Opponents of the private scholarship program have until July 17 to gather enough signatures to put a partial repeal on the November ballot. The Support Our Schools campaign says it is hitting its daily goals with weeks left to go.
“We keep hitting our daily goals,” Tim Royers said. “So as long as we can keep that momentum going, we’ll have the signatures we need when we need to turn in 30 days from now.”
The campaign is looking to repeal part of LB 1402 that directs $10 million annually for vouchers to attend private schools. However, the legislature confused the issue when it repealed the effort petitioners signed last year with 117,000 signatures.
“It’s been a pretty frustrating experience because one thing that I truly, personally believe in is we think this is a very important issue that we want Nebraskans to ultimately decide on,” Royers said.
State lawmakers passed the new voucher bill this year — undoing Nebraskans’ signatures collected last summer, forcing the Secretary of State to take it off the November ballot last month.
“We have been telling people they did that on purpose,” Royers said. “The confusion was purposeful to make it harder for you to go out and sign again.”
Bill sponsor Sen. Lou Ann Linehan has called the petition effort shameful, saying in a statement earlier this year.
“If the petition effort is successful, [it] will be stealing hope and opportunity from families,” Linehan said.
This most recent petition effort has changed strategies, finding people at events like garage sales instead of going door to door.
“Our presence [will be] a lot of small local events because we’re not necessarily going out, you know, door to door as much. It’s more about inviting people to come to us,” Royers said.
Support Our Schools says small events will continue to be the focus in this final stretch.
Organizers have until July 17 to turn in about 60,000 signatures from registered voters.
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