Omaha World-Herald. March 31, 2017
Nebraska must work to make higher ed available to all
The skill requirements to get a well-paying job in the modern economy are steep and getting steeper. Academic study or job training beyond high school is more important than ever.
A new report raises concern for Nebraska on this score. Only one other state has a bigger gap between the percentage of minority and white residents who have at least a two-year degree beyond high school.
The disparity for the 50 states as a whole is 16.4 percent, the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education reports. In Nebraska, the gap is 26.3 percent.
That is, 52.8 percent of whites in the 25-to-44 age group in Nebraska had an associate degree or higher. The figure for the state’s minority residents is 26.5 percent.
In Iowa, the disparity is 15.6 percent, a bit less than the national average.
Mike Baumgartner, the coordinating commission’s executive director, is right to point out that the way forward doesn’t lie only through action by Nebraska’s colleges, universities and community colleges. The effort needs to start far earlier, ensuring that minority students know from an early age about the opportunities that open up through education.
Among the many encouraging efforts on that front is Morton Magnet Middle School’s AVID college-prep program, a partnership between Morton and the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Service Learning Academy.
Students in the AVID program “can see, yes, this is somewhere I could be. This could be me, a college student,” the teacher, Lisa Thompson, said in a recent World-Herald article.
Metropolitan Community College has long made strong efforts to serve low-income and minority students. As reporting by The World-Herald’s Rick Ruggles recently noted, those efforts include dual-enrollment programs with many area school districts, as well as services for single parents and free area bus services for students traveling to most Metro campuses.
UNO’s minority student population currently is 3,336, up considerably from 1,382 in 2006. Nearly a third of current UNO freshmen are students of color.
The Thompson Learning Community, which provides supports to UNO students from diverse backgrounds, has grown from 65 participants in 2008, its first year, to 954 now.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln also is actively supporting minority students. The campus earned national recognition following a 2015 report that found UNL had done better than 255 other colleges in narrowing the gap between white and black graduation rates over the past decade.
From 2003 to 2013, those institutions of higher learning as a whole reduced that gap by less than 1 percent. By comparison, UNL reduced its gap by 15.2 percentage points.
Still, a major challenge remains in working to improve the graduation rate.
UNL’s minority graduation rate in 2013 was 56.2 percent, and the national rate was 50.1 percent. Some of UNL’s fellow members of the Big Ten Conference had considerably higher minority graduation rates in 2013 - 74.2 percent at Ohio State and 68.3 percent at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
One positive step by NU is its “Commit to Complete” initiative to help students get on a practical path toward graduation.
Creighton University, with students of color making up 26 percent of the current freshmen class, has a variety of programs to support minority students.
Creighton’s Intercultural Center promotes a culture of inclusion, outreach and respect. Minority students receive encouragement and support to explore health career options through the Health Sciences Multicultural and Community Affairs Office. And Creighton is the only post-secondary Jesuit institution to offer a Native American studies program.
The more progress that Nebraska can make in helping minority residents achieve higher-ed success, the stronger the future for those Nebraskans and for the state as a whole.
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Lincoln Journal Star. March 30, 2017
Find the funds to build the South Beltway
Building highways is an expensive proposition - a very, very expensive proposition.
The city of Lincoln again discovered that recently when state officials told the Public Works and Utilities Department that the cost estimates for the South Beltway had increased by 50 percent, from $200 million to $300 million after a revision on construction plans based on surveys of the beltway route.
That disclosure has Lincoln officials scrambling to find an additional $20 million to cover the local match for the construction costs of the 11-mile roadway that would be built near Saltillo Road south of the city and link Nebraska 2 on the east with U.S. 77 on the west. Construction could begin as early as 2020 on the essential project, which is designed to divert much of the traffic off the now overcrowded Nebraska 2 that runs through south Lincoln.
The city and Railroad Transportation Safety District are responsible for 20 percent of the project’s cost. The remaining 80 percent will be paid through state sales tax receipts earmarked by the Build Nebraska Act.
“It took a lot of effort to identify $40 million to cover the state’s original South Beltway estimate and still keep pace with Lincoln’s street construction and repair needs,” Mayor Chris Beutler said in an email statement. “We are concerned that an additional $20 million could greatly delay other important street projects across the city.”
That statement is an indication that funding the South Beltway is a priority for the Beutler administration, as well it should be. It should also be a priority for the RTSD, which should contribute everything possible to the local match fund.
The RTSD previously agreed to pay $13 million to cover the then-estimated cost of improving railroad infrastructure on the South Beltway route. That number is certain to increase and the RTSD should increase its funding to match.
As to where the additional funds can be found, perhaps some can be captured from the property tax windfall the city will receive from the increase in property valuations. While City Council candidates are campaigning on cutting the property tax rate to compensate for the higher valuations, or holding the rate steady, it could be possible to still earmark a portion of the new money for the beltway.
That’s how important the South Beltway should continue to be for the city, and if new money cannot be found to supply the project’s local match, funds must be diverted to finally ensure its construction - 50 years after it was proposed.
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McCook Daily Gazette. March 30, 2017
Mom-and-pop enterprises are key to economy
The announcement that McCook’s JCPenney store will close next month has put new emphasis on the loss of shopping opportunities and the need to support local businesses. Yes, it is important to do what we can to keep our friends and neighbors in business, but it’s good for the economy in general, not just the local business climate. Our total U.S. economy depends, in large part, on small mom-and-pop ventures. The U.S. Small Business Administration defines a small business as an enterprise having fewer than 500 employees. There are almost 28 million small businesses in the U.S. and more than 22 million self-employed workers with no additional payroll or employees - mom-and-pop businesses with annual receipts of $1,000 or more and subject to federal income taxes. More than half of the working population, 120 million of us, work in small businesses, which have generated more than 65 percent of the new jobs since 1995. It’s not an easy task to start a small business; some 543,000 owners try every month but more than that shut down. Seventy percent of new firms with employees survive at least two years, half at least five, a third at least 10 years and a quarter stay in business 15 years of more. More than half of all small businesses, 19.4 million of those are sole proprietorships, 1.6 million are partnerships and 1.4 million are corporations. The latest figures show the fastest type of freelance business is auto repair shops, beauty salons and dry cleaners. “Nonemployer” business people aren’t getting rich; the average revenue is $44,000 but many Southwest Nebraska residents would be happy to establish that sort of enterprise. So while we mourn the loss of a landmark downtown retailer, and work to maintain and cultivate local business activity, let’s make sure we at least do as little as possible to hinder local entrepreneurs and all we can to encourage them.
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Kearney Hub. March 31, 2017
Suicide prevention takes solid step forward
A rose to … the Suicide Prevention Stakeholder Coalition, which was organized through Buffalo County Community Partners to spread the word about help and hope to young individuals who are thinking about ending their lives.
On Monday, more than 300 people gathered to hear panelists talk about suicide prevention resources. Bringing together the Suicide Prevention Coalition was a delicate and demanding task, but community members who became involved threw their hearts and minds into the project knowing there’s a need to reach out and help youths in need. There is much positive momentum. Next step will be the Rae of Hope Foundation’s April 13 launch party.
During the gathering earlier this week, panelists fielded several dozen questions, addressed myths about suicide and touched on the agencies equipped to provide mental health services, including Richard H. Young Hospital, Region 3 Behavioral Services, Kearney Police Department, churches and Kearney schools.
People learned about suicide prevention resources for teens and went home with a hotline number that should be programmed into every teenager’s phone: 741-741.
A raspberry to … Columbus Day. It honors the world’s most famous explorer, but history hasn’t been kind to the man who discovered North America. Columbus now is regarded less as an explorer and more as an exploiter. Rather than observing Columbus Day, how about honoring Native Americans who made history?
We Nebraskans are proud of Ponca Chief Standing Bear, who was banished to Oklahoma along with other members of his northeast Nebraska tribe. On the trail to Oklahoma, Standing Bear promised his dying son that he would be buried on tribal land.
The U.S. Army intercepted Standing Bear as he returned to Nebraska to bury his son, and the chief and his people were detained in Omaha and offered little hope they could continue their journey.
Standing Bear became famous because his 1879 trial resulted in a judge declaring Native Americans are “persons within the meaning of the law” and have the right to be brought before a judge to determine if there are grounds for detention, also known as the right of habeas corpus.
The Standing Bear case is the inspiration behind Nebraska’s state motto, “Equality before the law.”
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