LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska is phasing in a new electronic benefits card for the program that services low-income women and children.

The card will replace paper checks between August and November for the Women, Infants and Children program. Once it’s fully implemented, 340 grocery stores and pharmacies in Nebraska will be able to accept the cards. A handful of stores will only take checks during the transition.

The card works similarly to a debit card, except that the cardholder’s account contains specific foods instead of a dollar amount. Specific food benefits are automatically deposited into a family’s account at the beginning of every month.

By GRANT SCHULTE , Associated Press
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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers are looking for ways to increase financial literacy training in schools, an issue highlighted by a national report that gave the state a mediocre rating in its efforts to teach students how to handle money.

Nebraska offers a patchwork of courses with no uniform, statewide requirements for showing students how to balance budgets, invest wisely and manage their debt, state and industry officials say. A report last year by the Vermont-based Center for Financial Literacy gave the state a “C” grade along with 11 other states. Twenty-four states received higher marks.

Nebraska already offers financial literacy education in some of its social studies curriculum. But state officials and lenders say schools should expand those lessons to include more detail or require a stand-alone high school course.

“It impacts home ownership. It impacts people’s ability to start a business. It impacts their ability to get a family started,” said Richard Baier, president and CEO of the Nebraska Bankers Association. “It reverberates through every aspect of our state economy.”

Baier said many young Nebraskans can’t get mortgages because their student loan and credit card debts are too high. Local lenders have also complained that they often reject potential bank employees because the applicants have poor credit.

State Sen. Mike Hilgers, of Lincoln, introduced a bill in January to require state education officials to adopt standards for teaching financial literacy in schools. The bill was shelved for the year, but Hilgers said he’s still working with interested groups to expand the curriculum the state currently offers.

Hilgers said he doesn’t want to heap another mandate on the state’s public schools and is willing to allow changes without formal legislation.

“This isn’t a top-down approach,” he said. “It’s meant to be collaborative.”

Roughly 60 percent of Nebraska’s K-12 students receive mandatory lessons on managing personal finances, and 43 percent get required lessons on economics, according to the Nebraska Council on Economic Education. Most school districts offer instruction in both areas but do not require it.

Those lessons are especially important for high school students before they graduate and sign student loan agreements to pay for college, said Jennifer Davidson, president of the group based at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

“We need to get to a point where we teach all students how to weigh the costs and benefits of the decisions they make,” Davidson said. “I think, unfortunately, a lot of them don’t realize the impact that taking on $100,000 in student loans is going to have on them.”

Davidson said the state will probably need to hire or train more teachers to meet the demand without imposing additional mandates on schools.

A representative for Nebraska public school teachers said his group supports the idea of providing more financial literacy education but would prefer to make changes through the state Board of Education and local school boards.

New requirements enacted by state law are more difficult to revise than policies approved by the state education board, said Jay Sears, of the Nebraska State Education Association. Sears said he was working with Hilgers and others to find a solution and was confident they’d reach an agreement.

“Yes, we need financial literacy standards,” he said. “But what we tend to get with legislation is a directive to do something, but no resources to do it.”

State Treasurer Don Stenberg, who has taken steps to expand financial literacy education in classrooms, said Nebraska should require all students to take a stand-alone course before they graduate high school. Those who don’t are likely to struggle with money in the future, he said.

“This is something every single student will use throughout their lifetimes,” Stenberg said. “There aren’t many subjects where that is true for every single student.”

Stenberg said more than 36,000 students across Nebraska have participated in a free, online program sponsored by his office that teaches students about personal finance. Exams given before and after the course show that students have learned about handling money, but Stenberg said the state needs to provide more education about student loans and other forms of debt.

“In terms of financial literacy, my sense is that Nebraska is doing better than a number of states, but still far short of where it needs to be,” he said.

KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — The Kearney Regional Airport is preparing to unveil its renovation project and to resume flights to Denver International Airport.

The airport’s new carrier, SkyWest/United Express, will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house on Sept. 5, City Manager Mike Morgan told the Kearney Hub . The city has renovated parts of the terminal to suit SkyWest operations, such as its baggage handling system, Morgan said.

He said the air carrier is preparing its staff while a concrete contractor works to complete the $12 million main runway replacement.

Morgan said the project has encountered many challenges because of the wet spring and summer, but that it’s on schedule for the open house.

“Even though we got some rain, we’ve made some progress,” he said. “Essentially they’re right on schedule, and I think they’ll make a lot of progress in the next several days, just bring on the sunshine,” Morgan said.

The U.S. Department of Transportation selected SkyWest to fly 50-seat passenger jets between Kearney and Denver a year ago. SkyWest is replacing PenAir, the Alaska-based airline that dropped the Kearney-to-Denver route citing difficulties maintaining an adequate number of pilots.

City leaders hope SkyWest’s jets will help increase passenger traffic at the Kearney airport.

SkyWest/United Express will receive an Essential Air Service DOT subsidy of almost $3.7 million annually for its first two years in Kearney.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is establishing its own advocacy program for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.

The number of students seeking advocacy services at the university following instances of sexual assault or domestic violence has risen steadily in recent years, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.

The crisis intervention service Voices of Hope saw advocacy sessions increase from 113 during the 2014-15 school year to 159 in the last one, the university said. The university notified the service in June that it wouldn’t be renewing its agreement and planned to create its own program.

“We did not see this coming,” said Marcee Metzger, executive director of Voices of Hope. “It’s taken a long time for people to know where to go for these services, and it will take time for them to reach out and find a different number or person.”

Laurie Bellows, the university’s interim vice chancellor for student affairs, said administrators made the decision after looking into what services other universities offered.

“One of the concerns I had was UNL has approximately 26,500 students, we have 24 athletic teams, approximately 4,000 Greek chapter members, and yet we did not have a full-time advocate on campus,” she said.

Bellows said UNL was one of the few universities in the Big Ten Conference without its own centralized advocacy program for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.

Students will have access to one full-time advocate and a part-time staff at the new University Health Center in the fall.

The new services will triple the resources available, Bellows said.

“It’s the first time the university has made this kind of strong commitment to serving our students,” she said.