A New Level of Outrage

 by Marilyn Moore

Remember that attraction at county fairs or other such gatherings, where you could swing a sledgehammer and see how hard you could hit the target?  It was kind of like a giant thermometer, and if you hit it hard enough, the indicator would go clear to the top, and red lights would flash and bells would ring?  I have an internal such indicator, my outrage thermometer, and it’s been getting a workout.   

In a legislative session in which the majority seems determined to restrict some pretty basic rights, e.g., citizens who want to vote, women who want to be in charge of their own bodies, students who want to learn all of history, not just a white-washed (literally) version of it, it seems there’s a new reason for outrage every day.  The most recent, but surely not the last, is a new revelation this week about the misleadingly named Opportunity Scholarships.

That’s the name given to what is in fact a huge tax break for persons or corporations who donate funds for the purpose of providing scholarships for students to attend private or parochial schools…the latest attempt to use state funds to support private schools.  This effort uses the sleight-of-hand process, in that instead of allocating state funds directly, which would be a politically unpopular, and perhaps unconstitutional, decision, the tax laws are re-written to let the donors do it instead, and reward them with a major tax break.  Not just a deduction, but a credit.

There are more than 500 non-profit organizations in Lancaster County.  For every one of them, if you make a donation, you get a deduction on your state and federal income tax, if you itemize deductions.  The donation is subtracted from your gross income, which lessens your tax liability.  In the case of Opportunity Scholarships, however, the donor gets not a deduction, but a tax credit…a direct dollar-for-dollar credit against the state income tax that is owed.  That’s a huge difference (do the math on your own tax form to see how it works), and it clearly sends the message that the State of Nebraska values a contribution to private and parochial schools more than a contribution to any of the thousands of other causes that are supported by non-profit organizations.

The writer of the proposed legislation, LB753, states that it is in Nebraska’s interest to assure that all students receive quality K-12 education, and that it is possible that some students’ needs could be met better by a private, rather than a public school, so therefore it serves the State of Nebraska to support private schools through donations that result in a tax credit.  I might argue that it’s also in the state’s interest to assure that children have reliable access to healthy and nutritious food, and that children live in safe and healthy homes, and that they have access to regular health care.  By the same argument that is advanced for donations to scholarships, the State of Nebraska should also offer tax credits for donations to the Lincoln Food Bank, and Habitat for Humanity, and Clinic with a Heart – all of these, and countless more, fill in the gaps of unmet critical needs in children’s lives.  But no, these worthwhile organizations, providing essential services for children and families, are worthy of only a tax deduction, not a tax credit.

These arguments, and many others, have been heard in the legislature’s Revenue Committee, because a tax credit will, of course, reduce revenue to the state.  Or, as LB753 is structured, it will require state resources to offset the tax credit.  And the bill has been advanced out of committee, with $25 million set aside to fund it, and debate by the full legislature will begin this coming week.

The most recent outrage on this bill is the news that broke earlier this week (February 27), in a story by Aaron Sanderford of “The Nebraska Examiner.”  Sanderford reported that a group of three non-Nebraskans contributed more than $700,000 to the Nebraska Federation for Children, for the explicit purpose of electing Nebraska senators in 2022 who would support using public money for private education.  And in that group of three big spenders, the identifiable name is Betsy DeVos, former Secretary of Education in the Trump administration, who made it her major goal at the federal level to use public monies to support private education through out-spoken advocacy for charter schools and vouchers at every opportunity.  Why, one might wonder, does Betsy DeVos care about legislative seats in Nebraska?  I would speculate that it’s part of her playbook to erode support for public schools, leaving a vacuum for private, and for-profit private, education to take more and more of the public dollars.  

If gaining influence in the Nebraska legislature is Betsy DeVos’s goal, her $700,000+ investment paid off.  According to Sanderford, the group supported nine candidates.  Particularly high dollar amounts were invested in four races, and of the four, three were elected, all of whom support the use of public dollars for private schools.  

Political observers note that this is the largest infusion of “outside” funding supporting local legislative races.  One might anticipate that such funding will continue, and that it may play out in local races, too, like elections for mayors, city councils, county commissions, and school boards.  As the spring primaries approach, and the campaign ads fly fast and furious with overtones of evil, follow the money…who is paying for that ad….  

But I must add, outrageous as I believe public dollars for private education may be, and especially the presence of non-Nebraska money in that effort, the greater outrage in this session is the harmful, hurtful, and downright ugly language used about and against our most vulnerable children, the LGBTQ kids, and especially the trans kids.  This is the student population with the highest suicide rate of all, and we, the State of Nebraska, are talking about denying medical care to them, denying opportunities on sports teams, dictating the most personal of decisions (how and where to use a public bathroom), and in general sending a message that these students, and their parents, are somehow or other “less than.”  

If we as a state adopt Opportunity Scholarships, and it turns out to be a bad public policy, which I believe it is, future legislatures can change it.  But if this anti-gay, anti-trans language continues, we can never undo the harm that is inflicted on individual children right now.  And that’s truly outrageous.