LINCOLN- Just two days after the Nebraska Legislature narrowly passed an "end run" to appropriate $10 million per year for private school scholarships, hundreds of protestors promised to challenge the new law. Many of those who gathered on Saturday on the steps of the State Capitol had backed a ballot initiative that aimed to repeal a similar law.

Jenni Benson, president of the Nebraska State Education Association, said passing the bill was a "shameful and cowardly act" that went against the will of the voters, as the new law is designed to thwart the ballot initiative to repeal last year's Opportunity Scholarships Act, an almost identical proposal.

LB1402, the new law, would appropriate funds for private and faith-based school scholarships over the next three years. Public school educators and other critics have argued that state funding for private school scholarships, whether direct or indirect, risks depleting funding for public education. Benson said opponents of the new law have two options: a new petition drive to place the issue on the ballot, or a lawsuit to challenge its constitutionality.

On Wednesday, Gov. Jim Pillen, sitting beside Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, signed LB1402 into law. "I'm very excited for a bunch of low-income kids who couldn't access an education that best fits their needs, and now they'll be able to," said Linehan after the signing ceremony. This is the first time in state history that a legislative act has repealed the subject of an active ballot referendum.

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