October 30, 2026 · Business and Labor/Education Committees · 11,680 words · 3 speakers · 25 segments
New century. Welcome to today's hearing with the education Committee and the business and labor Committee.
I'm Senator dave murman from glenvil, Nebraska, represent the 38th legislative district, and I serve as chair of the education Committee. This public hearing is your opportunity to be part of the legislative process and to express your position on the proposed legislation before us. The Committee will take up agenda items in the order posted. If you wish to testify on the mic today, please fill out a green testifier sheet. The forms can be found at the entrance to the hearing room. Be sure to print clearly and provide all requested information. If you will testify on more than one agenda item, you will need a green testifier sheet. Each time you come forward to speak on the mic. When it's your turn to come forward, please give the testifier sheet in any handouts you might have to the page as you are seated. If you have handouts, we request that you provide 16 copies for distribution. If you do not have 16 copies, please alert the page when you come forward at the microphone. Please begin by stating your name and spelling both your first and last names to ensure we get an accurate record. We will begin with the introducer giving an opening statement at the mic, followed by invited testifiers, and following that, the public will be invited to testify. The introducer will then have an opportunity to give a closing statement if they wish. We will be using a three minute light system for all testifiers. When you begin your testimony, the light on the table will be green. When the yellow light comes on, you'll have one minute to wrap up your thoughts, and the red light indicates that you have reached the end of your time limit. Questions from the Committee may follow up the clock. A few final items to facilitate today's hearing. Please mute your cell phones or any other electronic devices. Verbal outbursts or applause are not permitted. Such behavior may cause for you to be asked to leave the hearing room. Know that Committee members may need to come and go during the hearing for other hearings. I will now ask the Committee members with us today to introduce themselves. Starting to my far right. Good afternoon everyone. I'm jane raybould, legislative district 28, which represents lincoln. Good afternoon. I'm kathleen kauth leigh, 31, the millard area. Good afternoon. Jana hughes, district 24, which is seward york polk and a little bit of butler county. Good afternoon.
My name is danielle conrad. I represent the 46th district in north lincoln. Good afternoon. I'm glen meyer. I represent northeast Nebraska. Dakota thurston wayne in the southern part of dickson county district 17. Good afternoon. Dan lonowski legislative district 33, adams county, kearney county and rural phelps county. To my immediate left is education Committee research analyst jack sprague, and to my. My far right is Committee clerk connie thomas. Serving as. Our page today is. Committee. Clerk. Clerk. Julie. Julie. Okay. Julie. Cash. With that, we'll begin today's hearing with LR 433 Senator dover, thank you. I've testified in this room before. But I haven't seen you guys for a while. And you look a little vertically challenged. I don't know, it's kind of strange world right now. Good afternoon. Chairman. Chairman murman and chairwoman, education Committee and business and labor Committee and everyone joining us today. My name is robert dover. Robertdover. Thank you for taking the time to participate in this study. The purpose of today's hearing is to review the progress Nebraska has made in developing its statewide education and workforce data system, commonly known as n swers, to, and to examine what additional steps may be necessary to ensure this system is accomplishing what the Legislature intended. As legislators, we are regularly asked to make decisions about education, workforce development, and economic investment. These decisions often involve significant amounts of taxpayer dollars, and we have responsibility to understand whether those investments are producing the outcomes we expect. Nebraska has invested considerable time and resources into developing programs intended to prepare students for the workforce, strengthen our higher education institutions, and meet the needs of employers across the state. But we also need to be able to answer some basic questions our students can completing the programs we are funding. Are they finding employment in Nebraska? Are they entering careers that meet the needs of our communities and employers? And perhaps more importantly, are we getting the return on investment that Nebraska taxpayers deserve? Those are types of questions. Answers was intended to help us answer. To understand why we're here today, I think it's important to look briefly at how we got here. In 2010, the Legislature passed LB 1071, which directly directed Nebraska's public education systems to establish policies for sharing student data. This included the department of education, the university of Nebraska, the state college systems, and our community colleges. The purpose was to improve our ability to evaluate educational outcomes and to make informed decisions about education policy. The Legislature built upon that foundation in 2020 with LB 1160, the Nebraska statewide workforce and education reporting system act. That legislation recognized the importance of connecting education data with workforce outcomes, and directed Nebraska department of labor to enter into an agreement to exchange available workforce data.
Then, in 2022, Legislature passed LB 1130, establishing additional reporting requirements so lawmakers could better understand and research being conducted, the information being collected and the needs of the system moving forward. In other words, this was not something that happened overnight. This has been a deliberate effort, spanning multiple legislative sessions to give Nebraska the ability to measure what happens to students as they move through our education system and into the workforce. It is important to understand what was, is, and what it is not. Answers is not intended to be another layer of government collecting information simply for the sake of collecting it. Its purpose is to bring together information that our public institutions already maintain, evaluate, evaluate that information responsibly, and provide meaningful analysis that can help guide decisions. It is designed to help us understand the relationship between education, workforce training, employment and economic opportunity. And it must do so while maintaining the appropriate protections for student privacy and confidential information. The value of this system is not simply in the amount of data it collects. Its value is in what we can learn from that data, and how we can use those findings to make better decisions. LR 335 and 2022, brought by the education Committee, championed the goal of having 70% of students adults ages 25 to 34 hold a post-secondary degree certificate, diploma, or other recognized credential of economic value by 2030. If we are serious about reaching that goal, we need reliable information to identify where progress is being made, where challenges remain, and which programs are actually helping students succeed. That information is particularly important in greater Nebraska, where workforce shortages can have a direct impact on whether businesses expand, whether young families remain in our communities, and whether local economies continue to grow. Today's hearing is an opportunity to hear directly from the institutions and agencies that are using this system. I provided for you letters from heath mello, president and ceo of greater omaha chamber of commerce. Doctor paul turman, chancellor of Nebraska state college system, and doctor leah barrett, president of northeast community college. We will hear about how answers data can help evaluate student achievement, dual credit opportunities, workforce readiness, post-secondary completion, and employment outcomes. We also want to better understand the challenges that remain. Are all participating institutions providing the information necessary for complete and accurate pictures? Pictures should be accurate. Picture. Are these gaps in the data that limit our ability to. Are there gaps in the gaps that limit our ability to evaluate programs. Are there statutory or administrative barriers that need to be addressed? And as we look ahead, what does answers need to remain effective, sustainable, and accountable to the public? I believe it is important that we approach these questions with a clear understanding of both the opportunities and the responsibilities involved. The Legislature has already established the foundation for this system.
Our responsibility now is to evaluate how well that foundation is working and determine whether changes are necessary. I want to thank the representatives of our education institutions, state agencies and workforce partners who have joined us today. Your participation is important, and we appreciate your willingness to share both the successes and the challenges you have experienced. My hope is that we leave today's hearing with a better understanding of what answers has accomplished, remains to be done, and how we can ensure Nebraska is making informed decisions about its education and workforce investments. Thank you, and I look forward to today's testimony. Thank you. Are there any questions for Senator dover at this time? If not, thank you for your opening. Thank you. Matt hastings was up first with answers. Hello, chairman murman, members of the Committee. My name is matt hastings. Matthastings, and I'm the executive director of the Nebraska statewide workforce and educational reporting system. Or answers. Thank you, Senator dover, for bringing. LR 433. I want to start with two questions. This body should always be able to answer. First, when you invest in an education and workforce initiative, how will you know that it worked? Knowing how much was spent and how many people were involved in the program is a good start, but it doesn't say whether those taxpayer dollars produce the outcomes that you're actually hoping to impact. Second, apart from the governor's office, this Legislature is the only public body with responsibility for Nebraska's entire talent pipeline. That means preschool through grade k-12, through post-secondary education, and into the workforce. Your responsibility spans the whole talent system. Yet historically, the information available to you has shown you only separate parts of that system. So how can you know how a decision in one part affects the outcomes of the whole talent system? With limited resources, you need to know what public investments accomplish and how those results compare with the costs. This is the basis for evaluating return on investment for a scholarship. For example, did recipients complete a credential, find work in Nebraska, enter industries facing workforce shortages, increase their earnings? How much did the scholarship actually contribute to those outcomes? Those are exactly the kinds of questions that our partners created answers to help answer. They require information across the education and employment that no single partner holds on its own. And our partners established answers as a public entity specifically for a shared data governance and statewide cross system audit and evaluation process. Our partners govern us, they fund us, and they direct our work through our executive council and shared research agenda. They determine what we evaluate, the services that we provide, and the scope and frequency of our information and products. We operate under federal and state privacy law with written agreements, restricted access, highly trained staff, and data encryption. Identifying information is used for matching purposes and removed from all analytic records.
Our public reports contain only aggregate information and has protections for small group sizes. Reliable evaluation also requires complete and timely information. Every gap that limits this picture. Every gap limits the picture we can provide about anne investments, costs, its results, and the people it was intended to help. This work is already informing decisions, and I think you're going to hear a lot about that today from a number of our partners that are in the room. So back to our two questions. Answers helps you assess whether an investment worked and how those decisions in one part of the talent pipeline affects the whole. And that gives you a stronger basis for deciding where taxpayer dollars produce value and where changes might improve their results. I see I'm out of time, Senator. But go ahead if you have a little more time. Sure. So the people that you serve seek education, training, good jobs and economic opportunities all across Nebraska, but they're generally blind to institutional boundaries. Whether that means one college, another college, the department of labor, etc. Answers provides a model for a durable and secure partnership to evaluate that. How well that whole talent pipeline is actually serving nebraskans. Thank you, and I welcome your questions. Thank you. You mentioned, you know, we definitely need a return on investment with what we're investing to collect all this data and so forth. What kind of cost have has happened so far and what you what kind of cost have has happened so far and what you anticipate in the future? And if you if you don't have a good answer for that, maybe there's something I'm not sure, but maybe are you talking about the best one to ask about that or not? Sure. Are you Senator? Are you asking about the costs for operating answers in Nebraska? Yes. Our annual operating budget is about $3 million currently. I would say that the vast majority of our funding has been raised from private sources from to support the work the the Legislature has appropriated approximately. I have to remember the exact number, but it's less than $400,000 to support answers operations. Over the past six years. Everything else either comes from our partners themselves who contribute resources to us to do work on their behalf, or we've raised from private sources to. Make things with that funding. Have you been able to collect the data that you think is necessary, or is there even more you would like to collect if you had more funding? Senator, every week I'm I'm speaking with more and more. Organizations, state agencies that are operating programs that really want to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of those programs, ranging from corrections to juvenile justice to our partners themselves, the community colleges, the state colleges, the university system, k-12 school districts, and on and on.
Every week I get more into individuals reaching out saying, we have this program, we're trying to affect workforce outcomes or education outcomes. How can we partner to help measure this? So as those engagements continue to grow, that's a good thing because Nebraska can actually then measure the effectiveness of their investments, but it also puts additional burden on us. So I could see the costs of that rising, depending on how many additional state entities choose to evaluate their programs. And is Nebraska kind of a leader in collecting this data and, and the way we use it? Or are other states doing even more or a lot of other states doing more, more or less? Yep. That's a great question. And I would say and I'm biased, Senator, right. Because I want us to look good. But I would say that when we started this work about six years ago, Nebraska was probably among the bottom 5 or 10 states. And where we stood in terms of having this capacity. In Nebraska, there are about 38 states right now that have similar such systems. Six years later, after we started this work. Again, I'm biased, but I believe that Nebraska is among probably the top five states in the nation in terms of the sophistication of the system that they have in place to support these programs and their evaluations. I think there's a lot of room to continue to, to, to grow what we do and be more effective. But there are a lot of states now looking at Nebraska as the example of how to do this work, how to set up proper interagency governance processes, safety and security related processes, and ultimately inform the roi questions that I think you all care quite a bit about. And just one more question. We talked earlier about sharing information with other states and so forth. Do most states share their information or even work together to collect and compile and use the information? There are a number of states that have developed cross state partnerships, in particular as it relates to their employment outcomes information, as I mentioned in my testimony a little bit, Senator, you know, we like to think in terms of boundaries, counties, school districts, so on and so forth. But people operate, you know, in their own space, right? So somebody working in south, you know, or living in south sioux city, Nebraska, works in sioux city, they work in sioux falls or, you know, all around that area, the siouxland area, they don't necessarily care what the state is. And so omaha and council bluffs is another great example, right? You could you could go on and on. But so the point is there are a number of states that cooperate to understand what the talent flows look like across state borders as it relates to employment outcomes. So kansas has partnerships with missouri.
Missouri has partnerships with iowa, minnesota with south dakota, and so on and so forth. To understand those those cross boundary items. I think that's common. That is not something that enters has in place to date, you know, but again, we operate at the direction of our, our council. They, they, they are our governance body. And if that's a direction that they would like us to move, we would like to have those conversations with with others. To your first example, especially, there might be tax considerations between states that might be considered. But that's that's a subject for another. Yeah, yeah. We're we're hopefully trying to improve that situation. But. Well, anybody else have a question. Senator hughes. Thank you chairman. Thanks for coming in, mr. Hastings. And we've had an email going back and forth, but I was meeting with the independent counsel. I think this is what it's called, the independent colleges. So basically our private colleges in Nebraska, and I mentioned to them that, you know, I think it's very important to use data to decide policy, just like what you're saying. And they were like, oh, but we're our information is not in that. So my question to you is, can you reiterate to everybody, because I don't know if everybody knows exactly what information you are getting. And then if there are areas, for example, maybe these private colleges, because it's Nebraska data that, you know, those kids go into those private schools maybe came from or possibly came from one of our k through 12. Like what would, what would, you know, make your system as robust as possible? What are the big gaps missing, if you will? Yeah, yeah. The private institutions are currently not included in the, the system. We have had conversations with the independent colleges. I've had some individual conversations with private k-12 institutions, and there seems to be a lot of interest to have to participate in answers, and we are certainly interested in that as well. We're a relatively new organization compared to our partners, those behind me, you know, we don't have a 150 our partners, those behind me, you know, we don't have a 150 or 100 or 50 year history. We we've effectively been operating for about six. And so we said, Senator, at the beginning that we really needed to get the public institutions squared away and that process in place, well governed, well designed. And then beyond that, we would be excited to partner with the private institutions if they'd like to, to participate in the system. And I think there's a lot of interest there. And to Senator berman's question earlier about what what other states do. There are a number of other states that their private institutions do participate in their answers, like system. And so it's certainly not unprecedented. And I think it could be very valuable, again, for the Committee.
You know, I believe that you are one of maybe two entities that have responsibility for Nebraska's full talent pipeline. And so part of that talent pipeline is our public or our private institutions, whether that's k-12 or higher education. And so to also help inform you in how do we best produce the workforce that we need, I think it would be very important to have them. Well, and correct me if I'm wrong, it's not just a one way street, because if these private, for example, private colleges all came in under answers, they can use some of that information just to help themselves with what kind of scholarships they offer. Or I just I think the sky's the limit there, what kind of programing and whatever. So it would definitely be a two way street. Yes. We talk about answers always as a partnership. Yeah. And that's that. We have a real meaning in that word. That means that it's not just give and you don't get anything back. Our partners are putting data requests in all the time. We do special evaluations, all kinds of projects for them in return for for their support. That's exciting. Thank you Senator. Thank you. Chairman. Mr. Hastings. So when I heard the 78% number, I was really very, very pleasantly surprised because all we ever seem to hear about is brain drain, brain drain, brain drain. But then doing a little research, we're actually in the top three states to keep our native grown talent here. So when we hear those brain drain comments, I mean, this is a great statistic. 78% is really, really impressive. Would you care to comment on why we have such a perception that we have brain drain? Yeah. Questions are, are or the answers are always nuanced. Senator. So what I would tell you is that we do really well, especially with Nebraska native Nebraska students. So those students that graduate from Nebraska high school, they're staying here at pretty high rates, which is a great thing. We do less good with out-of-state students who come to Nebraska in terms of keeping them here for the long term. The other thing that I think you need to keep in mind is that over time, that 70 some percent of students over the next eight years does atrophy. And so by about eight years later, you can expect about 20% of those students to no longer be working in Nebraska. Now, you might ask, well, what about the students that initially didn't start here? And eight years later, did they come back? Because that's also something that we hear a lot about. Well, they they leave for 2 or 3 years, but, but they always come back to, to start a family or something like that. The truth is, the latest research we put out on that shows that it's only about eight years later. It's only about 6% of those that come back.
And so once they leave, they they don't come back. In general, I'm talking statewide now. They don't come back in as much as we think that they do. But we do do a very good job initially of retaining certainly Nebraska students less good with out-of-state students. So if we're to really move the needle on some of these, you know, statewide goals that we have around educational attainment, the truth is we need to retain everybody who's coming here to study, right? That's the opportunity for us to have a net new. And that's where the number is. Less is about. It's about less than half of them actually end up staying of the out-of-state students. Thank you. Any other questions? Sen meyer thank you, chairman murman, good to see you today. Yeah, mr. Hastings. Do you have a handle on about how many positions are currently short in the state of Nebraska and health and human services? We talk generally on a consistent year over year basis for 5000 years. In short, every year, regardless of who we graduate, how many we graduate, we learned about 5000 nurses short on a continuing basis. So you have a handle on various industries, workforce, individuals, individual workforces and huntley that we are short of. You know, I think we've had conversations that have been involved in different conversations with k-12. If we do a better job there, we'll have a trainable workforce, post-secondary trainable workforce, and which will be positively reflected on our state welfare. So do you have an idea just specifically where our greatest needs are? Yeah. We do. We have a some really nice resources online, Senator, which doesn't help us right here. But we also have a research brief on that around what we call the employment gap. And what we measure is it's basically a difference between the supply and demand, right? So how many jobs annually. And this is using good information from the department of labor. Do we have open across different industry areas. And then we also look at and how many individuals do we have in the talent pipeline, meaning in our colleges studying those particular areas. So they could be the supply to meet those those jobs in the future. And then we measure the gap between those to understand how much are we short and where we see the biggest shortage areas or the areas we hear a lot about nursing, health care, teaching, mechanics, accounting. And I have the full list online, but the nursing and teaching are among the very largest. Do we do we see that students that go on for additional education stay in the discipline that that they study for post-secondary? I know we have a lot of graduate and special ed teachers that are teaching special ed.
I know this is a very serious shortage we have in education, but there's been a number that have the certificate, but they don't do that. And so when people graduate in post-secondary, whether it's in trades or education, like do they stay in that same discipline? Do you have any idea as far as the continuity of education? Well, we. Do have a pretty good idea. And I could I could pull some of those numbers, Senator, and get them to you after the fact. I don't have them in front of me here, and it is it depends on the professions as well. There's variability, you know, some some some occupation areas are really demanding and people end up taking kind of breaks. But I can pull that information for you. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions? If not, thanks for your testimony. And next up is department of education chairman brian doctor monitor. Good afternoon, chairman merriman, chair, council members of the education and business and labor committees. I am brian maher, brianmaher, and it is my honor to serve as the commissioner of education for Nebraska. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss today. Answers. Chronic absenteeism and literacy development in the state of Nebraska. And how does answers help us understand these important issues? Impactful decision making requires quality information and that is what answers provides to the department of education. By connecting attendance, academic performance and outcomes over time, answers helps educators, policy makers, and communities better understand the factors associated with student success. This is just one of the prime examples of the importance of answers in our state. One example is the relationship between chronic absenteeism and literacy. Through its extensive analysis of chronic absenteeism, data answers has helped Nebraska better understand attendance patterns and how they help and how they are related to student outcomes. Chronic absenteeism means missing substantial amount of instructional time, whether through excused absences, unexcused absences or suspensions. Those absences represent missed opportunities for instruction, for practice and for support from our teachers. Among those analyzes, answers found that approximately 39% of chronically absent third graders third grade students demonstrated english language arts proficiency, compared to the approximately 60% of students who are not chronically absent. A 21% gap. Similar gaps were observed across other grades examined. These findings reflect patterns that many educators observe in their schools. Students who attend consistently, consistently have more opportunities to receive reading instruction, develop skills, and receive additional support when needed. Answers helps us understand how attendance and academic outcomes are related and where further attention may be warranted. This is not as simple as hey, being in school is good. It goes much deeper than that. Answers helps us to discuss strategy, helps us to discuss barriers, and helps us to understand what. What needs to consistently happen for students to be. To be present, to receive instruction, and to receive intervention.
They help us determine what barriers contribute to miss school and help us understand how schools and families can work together to improve attendance while supporting student learning. Knowing where concerns exist helps students identify needs, implement targeted interventions, and evaluate whether those efforts are making a difference over time. It also helps educators and policymakers learn from successful, successful approaches and better understand the conditions that support student achievement. Senator, I see I'm out of time. You're welcome to finish up. I think I can do that in about 30s as as Nebraska continues its efforts to strengthen literacy outcomes and improve attendance. And by the way, there's really good news coming on both of those fronts in the next month, I've had a glimpse at some embargoed data that I can't wait to share with you. But as as we continue our efforts to strengthen literacy and outcomes and improve attendance, dependable information remains essential. Following outcomes over time helps us identify challenges, measure progress, and make informed decisions. As you know from the decisions you have to make as legislators, impactful decisions require high quality information, supporting answers helps ensure that educators, policymakers, and communities have the information needed to make those thoughtful decisions that improve educational opportunities and ultimately, an informed citizenry for the workforce. Through the work of answers, I want to thank you for your time and thank you for the extra time. Thank you. I notice in some of the answers material, and you might have mentioned it to preschool, and when I first saw that, I thought, why do we have to worry about workforce? You know, when kids are in preschool and, you know, after I thought that through more, I thought. Anybody that knows me knows that I'm not a big supporter of early child care where it's not necessary. I mean, I know it's necessary and a lot of situations, but I think it's important for young kids to be preschoolers, to be at home with their parents or a parent or parents as much as possible. But. I think that could be useful information. Our our preschoolers, kids that went to preschool. And I realized that's a lot more than child care, but it is. Will that help them be more successful later in life or not? You know, and I, I know there's a lot more to look at than just income, but do you have any comments on that at all? I'm not positive of. The of the question. So let me just well, the question is, I guess, would that be useful information? I think it would be. Incredible, incredibly useful information. And here's why I say that. I think all of education is a building block. We build on what we learned and for for the next step, which is why reading at third grade is so important for graduation and post k-12 outcomes. It's because we build on that ability to read.
Preschool would be much the same way. Having having students ready for school is that building block that something that we should all be concerned about. Thank you. I'm sure we'll have some questions on absenteeism, but open it up to anybody else. You mentioned chronic absenteeism, and I think that is another piece, as you mentioned, very valuable information. Yeah, I think we're right on the cusp of being able to make a difference with chronic absenteeism. And it should come as no surprise to anybody that as our chronic absenteeism numbers improve, our literacy rates improve shock of all shocks when kids are in school, they do better than when they're not in school. Yeah. Thank you. Any further questions? Senator lonowski? Thank you, chair, and thank you for being here. Doctor maher, the one thing that I keep seeing that never gets addressed is making contact with those parents and making sure that they, to me, we're falling through the cracks where parents aren't able to stay home with their children or they're, you know, they allow their kids to stay home. And so is there, is there some part of this where we're trying to directly help parents? Relate to their four year old and say, don't, don't let it cry his way out of school? Or what do we have a piece there that fits in here somewhere? Without a doubt. In fact, based on those comments, we're not doing a very good job of helping folks understand some of the essential pieces of addressing chronic absenteeism, because it starts at the home and it starts with the with the caregivers. Ralston public schools in the omaha area really are doing a very nice job on addressing chronic absenteeism. And the core of what they're trying to do begins in the household. So that's not going unnoticed. Thank you. Any other questions? If not, thank you for your testimony. Thank you. Next up is community colleges. Greg. Greg. Chair murman chair, kauth members of the Committee, thanks so much for the opportunity to testify today. My name is greg dart, gregdart. I am president of western Nebraska community college, and today I am here on behalf of Nebraska six community colleges. I'm here to emphasize the value of answers and specifically how it's work on dual enrollment and early college opportunities is helping policy makers, educators, and employers make better decisions for Nebraska students. For many years, we believe dual enrollment was beneficial. Students, parents, teachers and community colleges could see positive outcomes, but we lacked a comprehensive statewide system capable of measuring those outcomes across k-12, higher education and ultimately, the workforce answers changed. That answers provide something that no single institution can produce on its own a statewide longitudinal picture. What happens to students while and after they participate in dual enrollment in early college programs?
The 2024 and 2025 dual enrollment special report showed that dual enrollment participation continues to grow across Nebraska. More importantly, they demonstrated that students who participate in dual enrollment experience stronger educational outcomes. The reports found that dual enrollment is associated with higher high school graduation rates, higher college enrollment and persistence rates, higher gpa, and higher college completion rates. The reports found that students who earn dual enrollment credit are more likely to attend college in Nebraska, work in Nebraska, and complete more college credits during the first year after high school. These findings matter tremendously to the community colleges. Our colleges serve as the state's largest providers of dual enrollment coursework, accounting for nearly two thirds of all dual credit. Every day we work in high schools, in urban, suburban and especially rural communities to provide students with access to college level learning without having to leave home. Through these partnerships, students can begin earning credentials and credits that shorten the time and cost required to complete a degree, skills training and enter high demand career fields. Answers gives us the evidence to understand which programs are working, where participation gaps exist, and how we can expand access for students who may not otherwise see themselves as college bound. The system allows decisions to be driven by outcomes rather than assumptions. Institutional research and analytic professionals at each of the community colleges leverage answers to conduct analysis related to student success, workforce outcomes, program demand and capacity transfer outcomes, admissions and enrollment protocols, and other critical processes. As legislators consider the future of education and workforce development in Nebraska, answers should be viewed as a strategic asset. It enables accountability, informs policy, and helps ensure that public investments in dual enrollment and early college programs produce measurable benefits for students, communities, employees, and taxpayers. For Nebraska, six community colleges answers as dual enrollment from program we believed was making a difference to a program that we can prove is making a difference, and has informed our policies, practices and outcomes. Thanks so much. I'll take any questions you might have. Thank you. Any questions for mister dougherty? Yes, Senator. Thank you very much. Thanks for your your comments today, and I'm very interested as lexington is in my district. And so I would be interested in maybe any comments that you might have on upskilling or retraining through the community college program. Absolutely. I think that when we think about what our missions are as community colleges, we have six community colleges with different missions. But the idea of upskilling and that short term credential to get someone job ready or or maybe ready for a new career is such an important piece.
And you look at lexington and you look at what central community college was able to do in a rapid response to to that the the training not only of those who are displaced by by the closure there, but then also all of their families and the needs there. I think that you can see the community colleges see a response in. In my own area, we had the closure of cabela's years ago, and it had a similar impact on the sydney community. If you go there now, it's an entrepreneurial hotbed because of the the work that was done with with our workforce partners and workforce development partners to, to create opportunities within the communities that we serve. And just as a follow up, I know you work on adult training. Is there any consistency or any track to really engage students at the at the high school level to actually secure some of those students through the community college program. Absolutely. So at the high school level, we do a lot of adult training. We also do a lot of high school training at at my community college, about 60% of our students are traditional age students. And, and it's their first step opportunities. And we have short term programs from cdl that are a few weeks long and directly into the workforce to, you know, certificates that are, are 15 weeks or, or a year to associate's degrees that are then transfer education. And I think that each of the community colleges sees their role as providing that kind of training across their service region. And whether that's to an adult learner, a traditional student, or someone who can only participate online, we we view our opportunities and, and our mission to meet the workforce demands wherever they might be within our regions. Very good. Thank you. Thank you very much. Senator raybould. Yes, thank you so much for being here today. Can you share with us one particular industry, career or trade that has particularly altered how you have to retool and redirect resources? Yeah, one of one of the areas that, as we've looked at at answers data is, is health care in, in my specific community college area, we, we were looking at at how students within our region were, were receiving dual credit. And we have a 17,000 square mile region. And j just being in that region doesn't mean that you are close enough to come to a campus to do something. And so we, we took a medical lab technician program that was was meeting needs, but was under-enrolled to be really frank about it. And, and looked at how could we use that dual credit model where we were doing more in each of the communities and, and find a solution. And so now that program is, is offered in a hybrid model four days a week. Students can can learn from anywhere.
And then one day a week they come to campus and get their lab opportunities. That has more than doubled the enrollment in that program and more than doubled the graduates in just a three year period. And that was something that we were first looking at, kind of the outcomes in those dual credit reports from answers. Thank you. I do remember when dual enrollment was new. There were some concerns that. Students specializing in in high school might be too early for that. You know, there's just there's limited amount of time for instruction when someone's in high school. So if they do start dual enrollment in a college or more of a specialization of, does that take too much time away from just general education that people, kids and even high school? Great question. And I think there's definitely a balance. We're not graduating hundreds of students every year with both an associate's degree and a high school diploma. But but there are some students that get to that point. The average student who takes dual credit is graduating with about 12 credits. And so they come, they get a taste of what that might be, and that might be on the academic side in your your english and math, where it might be in a trade. And, and that's probably where we've seen the most growth would it would it gives is a taste and an opportunity to say, this may be something that I'd like to do more. I'll use a diesel mechanic program that, you know, students can come in and they can, they can take those first courses in that and see, is that something that they would like to do? They might see that they really like to work with their hands, but maybe welding might be a a more proper path. And so it gives an opportunity to explore in ways that, especially in the rural areas, that high schools can't necessarily give that opportunity for. And does it, I think, complementary to, to what's happening within the walls of those high schools. Good. Thank you. Any other questions? If not. Thank you. Next up, the Nebraska state college system. Good afternoon, chair merriman, chair and members of the business, labor and education committees. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is angela melton, spelled a ngelamelton, and I serve as vice chancellor for student affairs for the Nebraska state college system. I'm here to highlight the value of answers and how it helps us understand and address Nebraska's declining college going rate. Answers provides in-depth research and reports that benefit all of the education sectors. One of its most tangible benefits is the opportunity for partners to request analyzes, using individual level data to answer specific questions. This past year, we wanted to better understand how many Nebraska students demonstrate academic preparation for college, but do not enroll through a targeted answers data request.
We connected high school academic records with subsequent college enrollment outcomes. Our analysis examined five graduating classes from 2019 through 2023, representing nearly 106,000 Nebraska public high school graduates. Three findings stood out. First, the percentage enrolling in college within 16 months of graduation declined from 73.3% to 67.1%, even as the number of high school graduates increased second across those five classes, nearly 7400 graduates with act scores between 18 and 30 did not enroll within 16 months. That includes more than a thousand students, scoring between 25 and 30, demonstrating academic preparation alone clearly does not ensure students continue their education. Third, excluding the 2021 cohort because of incomplete act reporting, approximately 1820 graduates annually scored between 18 and 30 but did not enroll. These findings take on additional significance alongside employment gap analysis, which identifies sizable gaps between workforce demand and the supply of qualified graduates in fields such as education, business, accounting, engineering and healthcare. Many of these students have demonstrated academic preparation that could support pursuing degrees in those fields, connecting them with appropriate programs. Supporting them through completion could help fill critical workforce shortages. The analysis does not establish why students did not enroll. It defines the scope of the challenge and guides our consideration of direct admissions, clearer financial aid, communications and more focused advising linked to career opportunities. The power of answers lies in connecting data that previously could not be examined together, or was unavailable to individual institutions. By connecting academic preparation, college participation and workforce demand, answers help shape institutional decisions and statewide approaches to Nebraska's education or workforce challenges. We appreciate your time. I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you. Any questions? Sen. Thank you. Chairman, it's miss nelson. Yes, nelson how do you count those who get associate's degrees in high school? Are they included in this number because they've done some college while they're in high school? Yes, I believe they were counted as enrolling in college. As being enrolled. It was not just enrolling in our institution. It was enrolling in any institution. Any institution, even before they graduated high school. You mean dual. Enrollment, correct? No, I believe it was. I would have to double check to make sure, but I believe it was enrolling after they left. Okay. And does anywhere as you study this, do you factor in the the growing cost of college and the astronomical increases in tuition as a factor in the declining enrollment rates? This particular report was not answering the question as to why we assume. I would assume that that is one of the considerations. So that would be one of the I would call them treatments. One of the responses that would we would look at as we try to address the issue is what could we do?
And that might be, you know, different ways that we could stack or offer our scholarship programs, you know, ways that we could talk to students about financial literacy. You know, how would we discuss that with them? How would we prepare them to look at ways to, to pay for? And how could we ourselves look at our tuition rates and how we do, you know, working through college, all of those kinds of questions would be ways we would try and address the issue. And how would we work with our legislators to look at different programs we could offer. But this particular study was just looking at the rates to try and identify the scope of the issue itself. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Sen meyer thank you, chair. Thank you for coming today. Mr. Melton. Hopefully, I heard these numbers and maybe you address this, and I've been here probably 18 to 30. Act didn't enroll within 18 months of graduation. Is that did I hear that. It was 16 months? Yes. 16 months. 16 months? Yes. And is that mr. Nebraska? I mean, with regard to enroll in an institution in Nebraska or out of state, is any out of state included with that? I would have to confirm that. I believe it was anywhere. I think it was. We confirmed anywhere. Correct. And then any idea after that time period whether they. I think it was limited to that time period. It's really difficult when you're 18 years old coming out of high school, what you want to do and just to go to college or just to go to trade school for the sake of just going. Probably not very productive and tremendously expensive. So I would just be curious whether perhaps getting out in the workforce and getting some experience and kind of getting an idea of what type of career you'd like to have. If after that time period, they would enroll in school in a particular discipline that they found they like that. I was just curious. We're doing a lot of work now at looking at adult learners is sort of how we term those. So we're, we're looking at different ways to approach and reach out to people who've done just that. Maybe they've spent some time out in the workforce and are now looking at adding a credential, you know, different ways to assess their experience out in the workforce. And maybe that counts for credit. And we all have programs around that to look at that experience and see if maybe that earns them some college credit. And also looking at, you know, ways to attract them back and see if that builds on, on what they've already done. So valid point. Absolutely. It's not unusual for someone to enroll in post-secondary in college, if you will, in a particular area, say teachers college, and decide, I don't like this and change majors.
And so it's really hard to know at a young age just what you want to be when you grow up. I haven't decided yet myself. Hey, I struggle with it every day. All right. Thank you. Sure. Any other questions? If not, thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Next up is coordinating commission for post-secondary education. Good afternoon, chairman, murman chairwoman and members of the education, business and labor committees. My name is mike baumgartner and my kebaumgartner. I'm the executive director of the coordinating commission for post-secondary education, and I'm here today to explain how has vastly improved our. Ability to evaluate state financial aid programs administered by the commission. And I'll focus on the access college early scholarship program. Ace is a scholarship program authorized by the Nebraska Legislature in 2007. It pays tuition and mandatory fees for low income high school students enrolled in dual credit or early enrollment college courses. 98% of students who receive ace aid qualify by being eligible for free or reduced lunches. In fy 26, 2452 students attending 17 different Nebraska institutions received ace scholarships covering 5428 courses and 18,750 credit hours. The cost of that was 1.16 million. With the advent of dedicated funding for dual enrollment at community colleges, three of those colleges no longer use ace funds, which has allowed the commission to fund multiple courses for students rather than limit the number to 2 or 3, as we've had to do in the past. The commission has long compared the college going rates of ace recipients to other low income students and to non low income students. Through a partnership with the Nebraska department of education. And the results have always been very encouraging for the graduating class of 2020 324, 81.6% of ace recipients attended college within one year of graduation, compared to 47.9% of low income students who didn't receive scholarships and 73.7% of non low income students. College going rate is good information. It would be hard to justify the program if students didn't go on to college at greater rates than low income students who didn't receive scholarships. But it has some obvious shortcomings. For example, was it the ace scholarship that made the difference in college going or greater interest in ability among the students who were merely assisted by any scholarship? We've also long wanted to know more about ace recipients after high school. Not just where did they enroll, but where did they enroll? Did they persist in their studies? Did they graduate? And if so, how long did it take them? Furthermore, how do they compare to students who have similar characteristics but didn't receive ace? And how are their educational opportunities compared to dual enrollment students who did not receive ace, and to students who did not enroll in college courses at all in high school, these questions could not be explored and answered without the combined powers of answers, data and its expert staff answers.
Studying six cohort years of ace recipient graduating seniors was able to use sophisticated data analysis techniques to control for student background characteristics, which helped tease out the effects of receiving ace. They also explored additional descriptive data and comparisons of majors time to degree grade point averages, and differences for outcomes between students who attended four year institutions versus two year institutions immediately after high school. Knowing that the ace recipients college enrollment, persistence and graduation rates are very similar to outcomes for students who took college courses in high school but did not need ace better than outcomes for students who didn't take dual enrollment courses, and slightly better for graduating similar seniors. Very similar to them who did not receive ace is very important to justify the value of the program. These questions and concerns can't be answered without answers, and we look forward to using answers to apply the same methods and data to additional aid programs that we administer in the future. I'll be happy to take any questions. Thank you. Any questions, mr. Bumgardner? Doctor sen. Thank you. Chairman. You were talking about the ace funds. Do you track the people who use ace funds for their academics? Are they staying in the state, or is there any sort of a clawback from them? If we pay for kids to go to school here, or are we keeping them here for a certain amount of time? We have not done that. These are high school kids, so I would have some serious concerns about doing doing that to them as opposed to if they were in college students, because we don't we don't do that with very many of our scholarship programs. Okay. So it's high school getting. Yes. That's right. It's high school students who are getting aid to take the dual credit courses. Okay. There you go. Thank you. Any other questions? I've been privileged to attend some out of state higher ed conferences in the last few years, and I have been impressed by the way, Nebraska, I guess with our higher ed, have been able to, well, coordinate how we do higher ed in the state. You know, we have a limited number of state colleges dispersed fairly well around the state, same way with community colleges. And for her probably five institutions with the university. And they're, you know, scattered around. And I've had other. People that are involved with higher ed from other states comment that Nebraska does a good job with that. The your testimony was. Conducive to how well you could do your job with coordinating commission. Do you have any comments about how we compare with other states or. You know, how we can improve maybe with how other states do it? But from my experience, it seems like we do it about as well as anybody. You're talking about, Senator coordination. Yeah.
I think that the different higher institution, I think it I think it works well for Nebraska. I think Nebraska is very thoughtful in the way they put together the systems over time and at a time that they determined that they needed a coordinating body to make sure that we weren't doing programs unnecessarily duplicating them, or additional facilities. I think that we have a light touch compared to a lot of other states, and that is helpful because it leads to more cooperation and more problem solving within the state and locally. You know, if you have a state that has a single governing board, there are efficiencies that come with that, but there are also issues of coordinating or their governing, maybe remote two year institutions and flagship institutions. And sometimes the needs get lost in a state like that between regions because there's just a lot of a lot of power and ability and concentrated resources in one place that that aren't dispersed as well. And I think that Nebraska has a good system. I've worked in three different states, three different coordinating bodies. And I think that we are I think that we're good about it. I think that we were thoughtful and we do a good job with it. I mean, for instance, I have heard some states are, you know, closing some satellite colleges or colleges, not only private, which there's always some risk with the private, especially in our times these times, but at least I think we have few enough that they're scattered around enough that there's not a lot of risk of that. I don't think that we overbuilt. And I think that's part of the coordination. If you look at a state like wisconsin, which has a tremendous technical college system and university system, but if you have two two year campuses doing similar things across the street from each other, that's not going to work very well. Pennsylvania is having the same experience. Georgia has had some of that. So there was overbuilding at one point, trying to make sure that there was a campus within 30 miles. That's a common measure of of everyone, but there are a lot of parts of the world where you can't put campus within 30 miles of everybody. And distance education has made that not as important as it was at one time. Yeah. Overbuilt. It's kind of the word I was looking for, too. Any other questions? If not, thank you. And then university of Nebraska system, plumstead. Plumstead, plumstead. We say bloom. My ancestors couldn't afford the vowels, but I always like to say so. Yeah. Chairman murman chair, members of the education and business and labor committees, obviously. Good afternoon. My name is matt blomstedt. Mattblomstedt. I'm the associate vice president for government relations for the university of Nebraska system, and I really I guess. I offer some greetings from president gould as well.
He is a member of the answers council and could not be here today. You've heard today how answers helps Nebraska evaluate outcomes across education and workforce systems. I want to highlight another important connection in that continuum how education translate and translates into Nebraska's workforce. Two recent answers. Reports illustrate the value of this work from a kind of a complementary perspective. The first report that was actually mentioned a little bit when when Senator meyer asked doctor hastings a question, it's that that brief on employment gap in Nebraska, which provides a statewide view. Ultimately, it examines ten high wage, high skill, high demand occupations and defines the employment gap as the mismatch between projected job openings and college graduates prepared to fill them. The brief shows that public post-secondary institutions are a major source of Nebraska's workforce supply and identifies engineering, among other occupations or educational workforce demand can be analyzed together. This next one that I want to highlight is the college of engineering education to career journey, which provides a deeper institutional view. It follows the engineering pathway from Nebraska high school preparation through enrollment, retention, graduation, employment, industry placement, and earnings. The report found that 52% of college of engineering graduates in the 2021 cohort stayed and worked in Nebraska with a higher education, higher retention rate among Nebraska residents. Together, the reports help us ask better questions at the statewide level. Are we producing enough talent to meet Nebraska's demand at the institutional level? Where are the qualified students lost among the pathway? Are students completing their programs or graduates staying here and working here, and what actions could strengthen all of those different outcomes? No single institution can answer those questions alone. The university understands our students and our programs. Our education partners understand other parts of the learner pathway. The department of labor contributes to the workforce perspective, and employers understand current and emerging talent needs. The opportunity is in connecting all of these different perspectives for the university. This analysis can inform recruitment, student support, academic planning, and employer partnerships for policy makers like you, it provides a stronger foundation for evaluating workforce priorities and public investments for students and families. It can help connect educational opportunity with meaningful careers in Nebraska. The value of an integrated education and workforce data system is not simply the data it contains. It. The value is in what we can learn from that information and the decisions we can make because of it. The university appreciates Senator dover for bringing this forward. All these partners that we work with on a regular basis, and we continue look forward to continuing this work on LR 433 and generally, the work that we're doing across the state. So happy to answer your questions if you have any. Thank you. I thought for sure you'd mentioned p 20. Yeah. Well, how how could p 20 use this information. Yeah.
And so certainly there's been an effort and some of these folks we've heard from, and all of our institutions are also working together beyond the answers. Work on a p 20 environment, really looking at p 20 and workforce. And a lot of this even brought forward are the types of questions that we're asking collectively. And so we love to be able to bring those questions to you and engage you and other partners in that work. And that that's certainly a big part of this as well. That's. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for the softball center. Are there any other questions? If not, thank you. Thank you. And finally, Nebraska department of labor, the other part of n source katie thurber. Good afternoon. Chairman murman and chairman and members of the education and business and labor committees. My name is katie thurber, katiethurber. Commissioner of labor, thank you for the opportunity to discuss Nebraska's implementation of workforce pel and the role data and inserts can play in preparing our state state's future workforce workforce. Pel is established under h.r. One, the one big, beautiful bill act signed into law on july 4th, 2025 and took effect on july 1st, 2026. It expands federal pell grant eligibility beyond traditional degree programs to include qualifying, short term workforce training. To qualify, programs must offer between 150 and 599 clock hours of instruction at at least eight weeks, but fewer than 15. They must lead to recognize post-secondary credentials that are stackable and portable, align with high skill, high wage or in-demand occupations, and demonstrate active employer involvement. Programs must also meet minimum completion and employment outcomes, and keep tuition and fees at or below the program's value added earnings threshold. These requirements make data central to program eligibility and accountability. States and institutions must demonstrate that programs meet established standards to track completion and employment outcomes and report performance over time. Data is not simply a way to evaluate success after the fact. It is foundational to determining which programs qualify and whether they continue to meet federal requirements. Nebraska has already made significant progress. Progress. We became the third state in the nation to have programs approved by the us department of education. As of october 2026, three programs at metropolitan community college have received federal approval. Phlebotomy technician, pharmacy technician, and comp tia tech plus with google it support. These approvals establish a strong foundation for expanding access to career focused training. The next challenge is to understand how effectively these programs connect nebraskans to employment and how well they respond to employers changing needs. This is where data and answers, in particular, can play an important and expanding role. Inserts provides the infrastructure to link education and workforce data across time, with appropriate data sharing and coordination.
Workforce information can become part of a larger system that tracks how nebraskans move from k-12 to post-secondary education and into the workforce, combining program participation, credential attainment, employment outcomes, and labor market information would allow the state to better identify which pathways lead to strong employment outcomes, which occupations are experiencing rising demand, and where gaps persist between the skills students acquire and the skills employers need. Ultimately, workforce paul expands access to high quality training while offering a framework for understanding the long term outcomes of those investments. By pairing this program with a robust, coordinated data system, Nebraska can align education with employer demand and prepare the next generation of workers for the opportunities that will sustain our state's economy. I appreciate the opportunity to testify today, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. You mentioned Nebraska was one of the first to have some programs approved with workforce pel. Has there been enough time yet to see if the workforce pel has made a difference? There hasn't been enough time to have data. They haven't enrolled the first students that are receiving workforce pel. The programs themselves have just been approved. I can tell you what will be neat is I will be able to answer that question, because the law requires the metrics and the outcomes to be there. So answers will be helpful in. Answers will be critical. And they were part of we put together a workforce paul working group and answers was a part of developing workforce pel in the state. Any other questions? If not, thank you for your testimony. Thank you. Mr. Are there any public testifiers before sending it over? If so, rise quickly. Too late, Senator dover said. Thank you, chairman. Thank you. Chairwoman. Thank you, Committee members that came today. I worked with all of you, and I know that you don't make decisions or cast votes without doing your homework. And I appreciate that. I think sound decisions are based on sound data. And I think just by listening to the questions you all asked today, I know it just gets your mind going about all the good solutions and the good decisions we can make with this data, and I think it's critical. That's why I had this study, is just the fact that this really opens a door to, I really almost think, an unimaginable amount of data that can make our state a better place and really provide sound education to the to the employers of the state of Nebraska, helping small communities, as I stated earlier. So I think it's it's a fantastic service that you all provide educators, you know, thank you for coming and doing your testimony and stuff. We couldn't do it. We couldn't do this without all of you. But I think it's a great opportunity here. And again, thank you. And we'll continue to do a little more research.
And and I look forward to any of you have any questions or suggestions as far as possible solutions or things we need to work on? I'd really appreciate that. Thank you. Any questions for Senator dover? Senator conrad? Thank you, chair. Thank you, Senator dover. It's a brand new room. We don't break it. Please. I hope steve and brandon didn't see that. Okay. Sorry. Back to the matter at hand. I had a chance to meet with doctor hastings and review the reports and hear different aspects of their advocacy and testimony as a member of the education Committee on on different issues, but just just trying to put a finer point on the purpose of the interim study. Are you seeking additional funding for this work next session? Is it just generally to raise awareness about answers? Is there some sort of information or data gap that we need to continue to take a look at? Can you have and maybe you don't know yet? Well, no, but I know that's kind of the point of the interim study sometimes to tee up potential reforms or, or. Changes in appropriations has nothing to do with money. Obviously, we have our challenge in the coming session that we'll all be focused on. No, I think it's really that answers is evolving and really doing a fantastic job. And I think it's time maybe to bring it out a little bit more into the light and to think of the possibilities and really bring it to both your committees so that I can, you know, we can talk. And if there's suggestions or shortcomings or strengths or things we need to do, but it's really just, I think, making everyone more aware of the benefits of nsaids and making sure, again, as I said earlier, that we're continually looking at it, how can we improve it? What's it doing? Right? And most importantly, I know that well, especially Senator conrad, you've been around a little while. You probably have seen some reports that have been generated that while under with good intent, really didn't make much difference. And no one's really looking at those reports anymore. But I think answers is very different from that. And I think I just want to make sure that we're all aware of it and we look, how can we better utilize this? And I think everyone that testified brought up a really good point. So there isn't any no appropriations, no money, just, you know, brought up the conversation. I think it's important that we perhaps think if there's a way to improve it, is it working correctly? Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for Senator dover? If not, that will conclude our hearing on LR 433 and hearings for the day. Thank you. I'm going to run over and see how the revenue forecast is going. I hope it's good news.