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A measure to repeal a private school tuition funding law in Nebraska will make the November ballot

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A measure to repeal a private school tuition funding law in Nebraska will make the November ballot


Public school advocates have collected enough signatures to ask voters to repeal a new law that uses taxpayer money to fund private school tuition., according to Nebraska’s top election official.

Organizers of Support Our Schools announced in July that they had gathered more than 86,000 signatures of registered voters — well over the nearly 62,000 needed to get the repeal on the ballot. Signatures also had to be collected from 5% of the registered voters in at least 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties to qualify for the ballot.

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen confirmed Friday that just more than 62,000 signatures had been verified and that the 5% threshold had been met in 57 counties.

It is the second time ahead of the November election that public school advocates have had to carry out a signature-gathering effort to try to reverse the use of public money for private school tuition. The first came last year, when Republicans who dominate the officially nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature passed a bill to allow corporations and individuals to divert millions of dollars they owe in state income taxes to nonprofit organizations. Those organizations would, in turn, award that money as private school tuition scholarships.

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Support Our Schools collected far more signatures last summer than was needed to ask voters to repeal that law. But the effort was thwarted by lawmakers who support the private school funding bill when they repealed the original law and replaced it earlier this year with another funding law. The new law dumped the tax credit funding system and simply funds private school scholarships directly from state coffers.

Because the move repealed the first law, it rendered last year’s successful petition effort moot, requiring organizers to again collect signatures to try to stop the funding scheme.

Nebraska’s new law follows several other conservative Republican states — including Arkansas, Iowa and South Carolina — in enacting some form of private school choice, from vouchers to education savings account programs.

Both opponents and supporters of the Nebraska private school funding measure have said they expect the fight to end up in court.

Evnen said county election officials are still in the process of verifying signatures on the petitions, and so the repeal measure has not yet been officially certified for the ballot. If the count reaches 110% of the total number of signatures needed, officials will stop verifying signatures and certify it.

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The deadline to certify the November ballot is Sept. 13.





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Nebraska has two pitchers selected in the third round of the MLB draft

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Nebraska has two pitchers selected in the third round of the MLB draft


The 2026 MLB Draft started on Saturday, with 135 players selected. For Nebraska, two Husker pitchers got drafted, adding to the growing list of prospects to come from head coach Will Bolt’s tenure.

Ty Horn and Carson Jasa were selected in the third round of the draft, being picked only five spots apart. Horn was selected 94th overall by the Cincinnati Reds, and Jasa was selected 98th overall by the Chicago Cubs.

The duo are the eighth and ninth Huskers to be drafted in the third round and the seventh and eighth Husker pitchers under head coach Will Bolt to be drafted in the first 10 rounds.

The duo joins Spencer Schwellenbach (2nd, 2021), Cade Povich (3rd, 2021), Emmett Olson (4th, 2023), Jace Kaminska (10th, 2023), Brett Sears (7th, 2024) and Mason McConnaughey (4th, 2025). Horn is the fifth Husker to be selected by the Reds in the draft, and Jasa is the eighth Husker to be drafted by the Cubs.

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Horn finished the season 3-3, with a 4.03 ERA and one save across 22 appearances. He started in 12 games. The Halstead, Kansas, native recorded 87 strikeouts in 82.2 innings and held opposing batters to a .241 average. Horn also posted eight-plus strikeouts in three games, including a career-high nine strikeouts against No. 18 Ole Miss in the Lincoln Regional.

Jasa is the sixth All-American under Bolt following a wildly successful 2026 campaign. He finished 10-2 on the season, becoming the 13th Husker in program history to reach the 10-win mark in a season and the first since 2007. The Thornton, Colorado, native also finished fifth in program history for strikeouts in a season after recording 117 strikeouts across 87.2 innings.

Jasa pitched two complete games, earned a 3.59 ERA, and held batters to a .210 average. He posted 10 starts with at least eight strikeouts, including a career-high 11 against Penn State and 10 against Indiana and Maine. His play helped him become the third Nebraska starting pitcher to earn first-team All-Big Ten honors since 2021.

Contact/Follow us @CornhuskersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Nebraska news, notes and opinions.





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MLB Draft: Cubs select Nebraska RHP Carson Jasa in the 3rd round

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MLB Draft: Cubs select Nebraska RHP Carson Jasa in the 3rd round


After going with power bats in with their two second-round picks, the Cubs went with big right-hander in Nebraska right-hander Carson Jasa in the third.

While Jasa is a tall, 6’7” right-hander with a fastball in the 95-96 mile per hour range, what the Cubs likely found attractive are his big spin rates. In fact, Jasa doesn’t throw his fastball very often and when he does, he has trouble locating it. Instead, Jasa relies on a upper-80s slider with some hard break. He also has a slow, upper-70s knee-bending curve with a 12-6 movement. Those two breaking pitches are Jasa’s primary weapons. He also has a fringy mid-80s changeup that he’ll need if he wants to get left-handed hitters out and remain as a starter. The Cubs have had some success teaching new changeups to Cade Horton and Ben Brown, and maybe they think they can go down a similar path with Jasa.

Jasa is a redshirt sophomore who missed all of the 2024 season with Tommy John surgery. He returned in 2025 and mostly pitched out of the bullpen, where he struggled. Jasa managed just 18.2 innings in 2025 and he walked 18 batters in that time, compared to 24 strikeouts. He posted a poor 8.68 ERA his redshirt freshman year.

But this past season, Jasa moved to the Cornhuskers starting rotation and found much more success. Jasa made 16 starts and went 10-2 with a 3.59 ERA. Over 87.2 innings, Jasa struck out 117 batters and cut his walk rate by over 50 percent with 47 walks. Still too high, but a big improvement over his first year back from Tommy John.

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MLB Pipeline ranked Jasa as the 173rd best prospect in the draft and Baseball America ranked him slightly better at 158. Once again, Keith Law at The Athletic is the outlier, as he ranked Jasa higher at 93. Law acknowledged the big command and control issues that Jasa has and the considerable reliever risk that goes with it, but he also thought Jasa had some high potential if he can learn to throw more strikes and command the zone better.

In Jasa, the Cubs are getting a project for the pitch lab. With Jasa’s huge size, strong spin rates and above-average velocity, there is a lot there to work with. But the challenge is for him to develop a better feel for pitching and a better command of the zone. Otherwise, there is a lot of relief risk or worse on Jasa.

Here’s some video of Jasa pitching against Ohio State in May.



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Nebraska redshirt sophomore Carson Jasa picked by Chicago Cubs in third round of MLB Draft

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Nebraska redshirt sophomore Carson Jasa picked by Chicago Cubs in third round of MLB Draft


LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Nebraska Athletics announced on Saturday that Nebraska redshirt sophomore Carson Jasa was selected in the third round of the Major League Baseball Draft by the Chicago Cubs.

Jasa is the eighth Husker to be selected by the Cubs in the draft.

Jasa was the No. 98 pick overall in the draft.

According to Nebraska Athletics, Jasa posted a 3.59 ERA with two complete games and 117 strikeouts across 87.2 innings while holding opponents to a .210 batting average.

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