Nebraska

AMENDMENT LANGUAGE

State Constitutional Provision

Neb. Const. art. VII, § 11: "Notwithstanding any other provision in the Constitution, appropriation of public funds shall not be made to any school or institution of learning not owned or exclusively controlled by the state or a political subdivision thereof; PROVIDED, that the Legislature may provide that the state or any political subdivision thereof may contract with institutions not wholly owned or controlled by the state or any political subdivision to provide for educational or other services for the benefit of children under the age of twenty-one years who are handicapped, as that term is from time to time defined by the Legislature, if such services are nonsectarian in nature.

"All public schools shall be free of sectarian instruction.

"The state shall not accept money or property to be used for sectarian purposes; PROVIDED, that the Legislature may provide that the state may receive money from the federal government and distribute it in accordance with the terms of any such federal grants, but no public funds of the state, any political subdivision, or any public corporation may be added thereto.

"A religious test or qualification shall not be required of any teacher or student for admission or continuance in any school or institution supported in whole or in part by public funds or taxation."

RELEVANT CASES

State Courts

· Lenstrom v. Thone, 209 Neb. 783 (Neb. 1981) (The Nebraska Supreme Court held that the statutory Scholarship Award Program, which provided financial aid to qualified state residents to attend in-state private and public colleges, was constitutional since it had a public purpose).

State of Nebraska ex rel. Rogers v. Swanson, 219 N.W.2d 726 (Neb. 1974) (Statutes providing for public grants to students in need of tuition aid to attend private colleges are violative of state constitutional prohibitions against enactment of special laws and appropriation from public funds in aid of a sectarian or denominational educational institution which is not exclusively owned and controlled by state or a governmental subdivision).

Gaffney v. State Dep't of Education, 192 Neb. 358, (Nebraska 1974) (Nebraska Supreme Court decided that an act granting of free textbook loans to a parochial school students violated Nebraska constitutional provisions prohibiting the expenditure of state funds in support of sectarian schools.

Tash v. Ludden, 129 N.W. 417 (Neb. 1911) (A college incorporated for promotion of Christian education which obtains its realty by purchase and whose trustees are elected by an association of churches, and which obtains a considerable portion of its funds by soliciting subscriptions from people of all denominations and of no denomination for the purposes of purchasing land, erecting buildings, and supplying the school, does not thereby become a religious, sectarian, or eleemosynary corporation so as to preclude sale by the trustees of its property).

State v. Scheve, 93 N.W. 169 (Neb. 1903) (The section of the state constitution which provides that "no sectarian instruction shall be allowed in any school or institution supported, in whole or in part, by public funds set apart for educational purposes," cannot be held to mean that neither the Bible, nor any part of it may be read in the educational institutions fostered by the state).

REPEAL EFFORTS

See the Heritage Foundation website for a list of state contacts.