1-minute overview

What your vote means

Nebraska voters will have a say this year on what’s been a longstanding source of tension for lawmakers in Nebraska: School choice. 

After years of debate, the Nebraska Legislature passed a law in 2023, then replaced it this year, eventually creating a state voucher program that can award up to $10 million a year for K-12 students to attend private schools.

A group opposing that law has gathered enough signatures to ask voters whether they’d like to take it off the books. Over the last two years, the group’s biggest donations have come from the national and state education associations.

Voters have a choice: Do you think that the state should only fund public schools and not private ones, as the law’s opponents argue? Or, do you support using taxpayer money for private school scholarships, which supporters of the law argue will help lower-income Nebraskans go to private schools if they wish? 

The options on this one are “Retain” or “Repeal”: Vote to retain if you want the law to stay on the books, vote to repeal if you don’t.