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A group of mostly conservative Nebraska lawmakers gathered Monday to decry a "false" and "distasteful" political ad that depicts legislators breaking pencils and overturning toys in an elementary school classroom while suggesting a new state law will lead to cuts to public school funding and increased property taxes.

The television ad, meant to spur voters to repeal a new state law that sets aside $10 million of tax dollars for private school scholarships, shows three men dressed in suits toppling dominoes and Lego bricks while a narrator claims the law "could force cuts at public schools to pay for it."

The ad suggests the new law could lead to larger class sizes, fewer resources and lower teacher pay at public schools — along with higher property taxes for homeowners.

Paid for by the teachers union-backed group Support Our Schools Nebraska, the ad began airing across the state late last week as Nebraskans face a vote next week to repeal or retain LB1402, which established the state-funded private school scholarship program. The group gathered more than 60,000 signatures this summer to put the law's fate in the hands of voters.

With just more than a week before Election Day, nearly 20 state lawmakers gathered in the Capitol's Rotunda to blast the ad and the group behind it, accusing Support Our Schools of spending "millions of dollars" to "lie about what's really happening" and taking direct aim at the president of Nebraska's State Education Association.

The lawmakers asserted that none of the ad's claims are accurate — and that the nature of the commercial itself was "hitting under the belt" — while they made the same case for LB1402 that they have all along, arguing that the law will help ensure students have access to quality education even if their parents cannot afford private school tuition.

Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, the bill's sponsor, said without the law the state is "leaving kids behind." Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha, the only Democrat in the Legislature who voted for the bill, said high-quality education should be a right — not a chance.

"And what I mean by chance is the chance that you have a good enough job to pay for your kid to go somewhere (or) the chance that you happen to live in a neighborhood that you can afford, where you have a local good school," Wayne said, adding: "No matter where you live, a parent should have access to a high-quality education for their students."

The lawmakers also seemed to take personal offense to the ad, saying its backers "should be ashamed of themselves."

"I hope whoever paid for that commercial is proud of themselves for putting that on TV and showing students purportedly being disrespected by state senators," said Sen. Mike Moser of Columbus. "That is not the truth. That's prejudicial. Why did they do that? Because it made people mad, but it's not based on the truth."

At several points, they attacked NSEA President Tim Royers — who stood in the Rotunda throughout the 45-minute news conference — by name. Sen. Julie Slama of Dunbar called Royers, a public school teacher from Millard, a "union thug."

In remarks to reporters afterward, Royers noted the ad lawmakers decried Monday hit airwaves long after an ad paid for by Keep Kids First Nebraska, the Linehan-backed group that formed to compete with Support Our Schools, suggested the teacher union-backed group working to repeal LB1402 would "embrace the woke agenda in our schools."

"We didn't care, because as teachers, we have thick skins, and we move on," he said. "And we put out one tongue-in-cheek ad and it merits a 45-minute press conference."

Asked to respond to the lawmakers' assertion that his group's ad made inaccurate claims, Royers pointed to last year that analyzed the now-repealed private school scholarship program that LB1402 replaced and determined mass transfers of public school students likely wouldn't reduce the cost of a school district's operations — but could reduce the amount of state aid available to schools.

"The only other alternative beyond program cuts is to look at property taxes," Royers said, adding: "That's not hyperbole."

But nothing in LB1402 as written would lead to immediate cuts to public school funding or hiked property taxes.

Royers said his group's campaign to repeal the law is "so much more about the future than just next year," warning that the initial $10 million appropriation to private schools could only be a precursor to an expanded state-funded private school system.

In Arizona, after state lawmakers expanded its longtime private school scholarship program in 2022, the program cost 1,346% more than projected, .

The majority of students who utilized the vouchers in Arizona were not public school transfers, but previously enrolled private school students who were using the state-funded scholarships to subsidize their costs.

"Arizona's program started off at around the same cost that (Nebraska lawmakers are) citing; now it's costing that state nearly a billion dollars," Royers said. "So we're looking at it much longer in the future because ... we have a lot of states that we can look at to see what happens down the road once a program gets implemented."

Both camps are essentially rehashing the same argument that has surrounded state-funded private school scholarships in Nebraska since the Legislature established the initial voucher program in 2023, when opponents argued that policy harms students, families and schools by diverting would-be public school funding to private and parochial schools that don’t have to accept every student.

Backers of the concept say the program provides an opportunity for students, including kids from low-income families and kids trying to escape bullying, to attend private schools they may otherwise be priced out of.

"It's not about the schools. It's not about the teachers. It's about the student," Sen. John Arch of La Vista said Monday. "There are students where this just doesn't fit, and they have no options. They have no choice. And that's what we were trying to do with LB1402."

But the lawmakers at Monday's news conference also acknowledged that their attempts to provide state funding to private schools would not stop with LB1402 — even if Nebraskans vote to repeal it next month.

Linehan, who is term-limited and will not return to the Legislature in January, said she "would be surprised" if lawmakers don't try to pass so-called school choice legislation again next year if the law is repealed.

She said she's "not putting much value" into a repeal vote when voters have been "lied to." Linehan and other lawmakers accused Support Our Schools of spending $5 million to mislead voters while facing "no opposition."

The group had spent $1.51 million on its campaign this year through the end of September, according to its latest financial disclosure filings. Keep Kids First, the opposition group working in support of the law, had spent $78,893 through the end of September, according to its latest filings.

Lawmakers on Monday repeatedly took aim at the teachers union-backed group over its lavish spending on its campaign — the second Support Our Schools has carried out in as many years to repeal private school scholarship measures.

"And going forward, there will be other scholarship programs," said Moser, the lawmaker from Columbus who will return for his last biennium in January. "I'm sure most other states have programs that are much more substantive than what Nebraska has, so there may be more.

"So are you going to spend millions of dollars next year to battle another bill if it passes that helps provide options for school kids to go to school? I mean, where does it stop?"

Moments later, Royers said public schools backers would return to the mat as many times as needed to prevent the state from funding private schools.

"This is a fundamental issue, red line in the sand," he said. "We'll keep doing this."