Research supports the fact that early learning experiences are necessary to healthy intellectual, social, and emotional development. Such experiences create a foundation for children to be successful students and eventually productive, contributing adults. Voices for Children believes that financial investments in working families and their children are investments in the…...
The Budget Impact of the Affordable Care Act
There are many changes to come in health care in the next year and one topic pressing to Nebraskans is the Medicaid Expansion under the Affordable Care Act. On Tuesday, the Health and Human Services and Appropriations Committees of the state legislature considered the costs and benefits of a potential…...
New Report Highlights “Lost Decade” for Some Nebraska Families
A new report released this week by Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analyzes state income trends and highlights significant disparities in growth rates since the 1970s. Nationally, the report found that higher income households have seen substantial income growth while those in lower and middle income households had experienced…...
Early Education Supports Military Readiness
Last week, two retired generals from Nebraska called on policymakers to support high-quality early childhood education. At first glance, it seems an odd topic for generals to be speaking out on, but it’s part of a growing recognition about the wide-ranging importance of early childhood education. Lately, it seems everyone from…...
The Real Issues on Sesame Street
If you’ve been following the presidential election lately, it’s hard to miss the talk lately about subsidies for public television and the popular children’s television show, Sesame Street. What’s missing from this conversation (and in many campaigns so far), is how we really are failing Sesame Street by failing its viewers — kids....
CFED Launches New Assets & Opportunities Network
A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of presenting at and attending the bi-annual conference held by the Corporation for Enterprise Development (or CFED, since everything in government and policy has to have an acronym). CFED‘s mission is to empower low- and moderate-income households to build and preserve assets…...
September is College Savings Month
Governor Heineman recently announced that September is college savings month in Nebraska and that there are events coming up in October where families can learn more about saving for their children’s higher education through a tax-advantaged plan. We appreciate the Governor’s interest in this issue, and recent research highlights why…...
