Opportunity Scholarships go directly to the families of the children in need. Our schools will be even stronger because we'll be serving more children seeking the kind of transformational education Catholic schools provide.

If the Opportunity Scholarships Act is repealed, families who have been waiting for hope in education will have these new, exciting opportunities taken away. These are families who experience financial obstacles, military families, those with children with exceptional needs, those with children who have experienced bullying in the public school system. Every child deserves the opportunity to access the best educational fit. Declining to sign the petition to repeal LB753 will help make dreams possible for more Nebraska families.

Public schools are an important part of Nebraska life, and, in many cases, they offer a quality education. But public schools are not an ideal fit for every child. All students should all have the opportunity to learn in a safe and supportive school, chosen by their parents, that meets their individual needs. Studies have shown that private school choice improved or had no detrimental effect on the performance of nearby public schools.

When a student attends a nonpublic school using a tax credit scholarship like Nebraska's Opportunity Scholarships, the scholarship frees up the state government from paying the public school the full cost of attendance for that student. And the cost to educate a child in a traditional district school is greater than the revenue a state foregoes through scholarship tax credit programs. It’s no wonder that tax credit scholarship programs, for example, end up saving each participating state anywhere from $13 million to $120 million annually. So, not only do tax credit scholarships not reduce public school funding, they provide additional revenues that could be used to invest in kids in public school settings. What's more, Nebraska lawmakers in 2023 also passed historic funding for public education - ensuring public schools will receive nearly $1 billion of increased financial support.