The Health and Human Services Committee heard testimony March 14 on a bill that would expand eligibility for using education to satisfy work requirements in order to qualify for certain public benefits.<\/p>\n
Currently, the Welfare Reform Act allows participants younger than 24 to pursue a high school diploma or General Educational Development Test (GED) and remain in compliance with the Aid to Dependent Children Program\u2019s (ADC) work requirements.<\/p>\n
LB240, introduced by Scottsbluff Sen. John Harms, would remove the age restriction.<\/p>\n
Harms said the change would allow ADC participants over the age of 24 to access educational opportunities that will move them out of poverty and toward economic self-sufficiency.<\/p>\n
\u201cEducation is the only key to long-term stability for both the parents and the children,\u201d Harms said. \u201cWithout that there is no hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beatty Brasch, executive director of the Center for People in Need, testified in support of the bill. Calling poverty a \u201ctremendous problem\u201d in Nebraska, she said removal of the age restriction would allow more low-income individuals to overcome their lack of educational achievement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat small change would help real people that I see every day at the Center who are caught in the web of poverty,\u201d Brasch said.<\/p>\n
No one testified in opposition to the bill and the committee took no immediate action on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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