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The bill (LB1402) from Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn will need to clear one more hurdle on the final day of the 60-day session on April 18 in order to be sent to the desk of Gov. Jim Pillen.

Wednesday marked the second day in a row LB1402 evaded a filibuster before being advanced, receiving the minimum 33 votes needed to shut off debate just after 9:30 p.m.

But three senators who voted to invoke cloture did not vote to advance the bill: Sen. Myron Dorn of Adams, Sen. Teresa Ibach of Sumner and Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston. It advanced 30-15.

Riepe voted in favor of the bill on Tuesday, when LB1402 advanced on a 31-12 slate after the Legislature reduced the funding for private school scholarships from $25 million to $10 million per year.

The amendment also stripped an "escalator" from the bill that would have allowed funding to grow to as much as $100 million per year.

Without any further amendments needing to be attached, Wednesday's debate centered on the merits of LB1402.

Backers said the Opportunity Scholarship Act would do what its name advertised — provide opportunities to students and families that otherwise would not have one.

Omaha Sen. Christy Armendariz said the scholarship would give low-income students a way out of what she described as failing inner-city schools.

"Discipline and grit gets you out of poverty, exposure to things outside your neighborhood gets you out of poverty," Armendariz said. "Locking you down into a school that's not working for you does not get you out of poverty."

A handful of senators pointed to a dramatic increase in state funding for public schools that passed the Legislature last year — $1 billion in an Education Future Fund, as well as more than $300 million added to the state aid formula — as a reason to send funds to private schools.

"It's a small contribution," said Sen. Mike Jacobson of North Platte. "It's fixed at $10 million. I think that's a fair deal."

Sen. Robert Dover of Norfolk said senators who opposed LB1402 often talk about helping the poor and children, but were reluctant to provide them with better educational opportunities.

"How many more kids are going to end up in North Omaha on the streets, in gangs, in prison, or worse, dead?" Dover said. "They're leaving them to languish in situations where this can help them."

But critics of the bill attacked it again as an attempt to circumvent a referendum on a tax credit for donors to private school scholarship funds passed (LB753) by Linehan last year.

Sen. Tom Brandt of Plymouth, who said he attended both private and public schools, urged the Legislature to wait and see what the voters decide at the ballot box this fall.

Support Our Schools Nebraska, a coalition that ran a petition drive to put the tax credits for private school scholarships on the ballot, submitted more than 117,000 signatures to Secretary of State Bob Evnen last year.

Nearly 92,000 signatures were verified, well over the 61,308 necessary to qualify for the general election.

"We should wait to see what the people decide," Brandt said. "My question is when do we stop listening to our constituents?"

Omaha Sen. John Fredrickson, who also attended private schools, said Nebraskans deserved to weigh in on whether or not the Legislature should be appropriating state funds to secular organizations.

"Not allowing to vote on that, and trying to work around the public's desire or wish is not good governance, regardless if you support the issue or disagree with it," Fredrickson said.