Supporters of private and religious school scholarships block budget in Legislature

By Fred Knapp , Senior Reporter/Producer Nebraska Public Media

March 19, 2026, midnight ·

Sen. Rob Clements in debate Thursday (Fred Knapp/Nebraska Public Media News) — Sen. Rob Clements in debate Thursday. (Fred Knapp/Nebraska Public Media News)

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Nebraska’s main state budget bill (LB1071) was held up in the Legislature Thursday by senators frustrated by a proposal to eliminate funding for private and religious school scholarships.

Thursday was supposed to be the day when senators voted on the second of three rounds of approval that would be required for the main state budget bill. As presented by Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Rob Clements, cuts contained in an amendment would have reduced the projected budget shortfall from $125 million to $37 million.

But one of the cuts outlined by Clements – $3,650,000 for scholarships to private and religious schools – set off fierce resistance from senators. Among them was Sen. Kathleen Kauth, who pointed out the funding was for one year only.

“This is the stop-gap year between last year, when kids transitioned into new schools and are being successful, possibly for the first time in their lives. Now, all of a sudden, we are ripping that funding away from them, until next year, when the federal government funding will step in. This is a gap year,” Kauth said.

Nebraska had a private and religious school scholarship program, but 57% of Nebraskans voted to repeal it in 2024. Supporters say funding for that program will run out in January, and funding for a similar federal program won’t be available for another year, creating the need for stopgap funding.

Sen. Brad von Gillern pointed out that the scholarships would be limited to families with incomes at or below 185% of the federal poverty line, or about $61,000 for a family of four. And he accused senators who say they support programs to benefit low income and minority families but oppose the scholarships of hypocrisy.

“This is a program that was completely targeted towards poor families, marginalized families and very likely, people of color,” von Gillern said.

Sen. Ashlei Spivey pushed back against that charge, citing the Legislature’s vote earlier this year to allow schools to suspend students in kindergarten through second grade.

“You can't stand here today and say that folks are hypocrites if they are not supportive of vouchers that give kids an opportunity, when specifically black kids are disproportionately represented in probation and in detention, and we know that that pipeline is because of suspension. They are overly suspended, and you all voted to ensure that kids (in grades) K-12 could be suspended with no guardrails,” Spivey said.

Senators supporting the scholarships argued they are important because they offer a choice to students who aren’t doing well in public schools.

Sen. Megan Hunt framed the discussion differently.

“We're basically debating whether government should intervene -- in a market, by the way, because you do have to pay for this private education -- to make it easier for kids to receive an evangelical Christian education,” Hunt said.

But Sen. Rob Dover, supporting the scholarships, rejected that way of looking at things.

“I am not a Catholic. I am not a Lutheran. I have no schools in my church. I am not doing this for any reason. I am simply doing this for the children,” Dover said.

Senators also discussed who was to blame for the impasse. Sen. Myron Dorn said blame should not rest with Clements for simply trying to advance a proposal to help balance the budget. Instead, he faulted Gov. Jim Pillen for trying to put scholarships in the budget, rather than in a separate legislative bill.

“If we want to blame Senator Clements, I think you need to blame somebody else for this whole process -- and that is the governor --for this whole process. Why he didn't have somebody bring a bill?” Dorn asked. “If you want to do what's right and you want to do what's right with the process that we have in this Legislature, bring a bill next year and see where you get.”

Sen. Jared Storm defended Pillen.

“The governor did this because he cares about 2,300 poor kids that are going to be ripped out of their school setting that's working for them for one year,” Storm said.

Storm said voters would not have repealed the previous scholarship program if not for the opposition led by the Nebraska State Education Association teachers’ union. He said that organization’s opposition would have bad effects on students who have benefitted from private schools.

“It’s about ripping them out of that education setting and forcing them to go somewhere else. Tell me who thinks that's good. I would love to hear the teachers’ union tell me why they think that's good for kids to do that to them. It's not good for them at all. It's about control. It's about control. It's about power. It's about squashing the competition,” he said.

After four hours of debate, Speaker John Arch moved to invoke cloture – that is, cut off debate and vote on the bill. But only 19 senators supported Arch’s motion, far short of the 33 needed, so the Legislature moved on to another bill.

Following the vote, Pillen issued a statement criticizing the Legislature. “It’s time for them to stop playing political games and pass a balanced budget,” the statement said. A question about whether he wanted them to invoke cloture, in spite of the fact that the bill did not contain any of the scholarship money he had proposed, was not immediately answered.

Arch said he would schedule the bill for another two hours of debate on Monday.

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Correction: an earlier version of this story, and the audio version, misstated the number of votes needed for cloture. It is 33.