February 18, 2025
Sen. Dave Murman, Chairperson
Sen. Margo Juarez
Sen. Jana Hughes, Vice Chairperson
Sen. Dan Lonowski
Sen. Danielle Conrad
Sen. Glen Meyer
Sen. Megan Hunt
Sen. Rita Sanders
The Lincoln Public Schools submits this proponent testimony in support of LB417, sponsored by Senator Bostar.
LB417 establishes need-based scholarship commitments for post secondary tuition costs that kick in after the application of federal Pell Grant funds and other grants and scholarships. LB417 also establishes the College Promise Fund, to be administered by the Coordinating Commission for Post-Secondary Education. These provisions of the bill are significant in committing resources necessary for qualifying / eligible students to be able to pursue post-secondary education while reducing the likelihood they would have to accrue substantial student loan debt in order to do so.
Of particular interest to us are the provisions of the bill addressing the secondary level in K-12: the most significant portion of the bill in our estimation establishes provisions for students to take a nationally recognized portable Career Readiness Assessment leading to a National Career Readiness certificate. This reflects a significant commitment to workforce readiness, and expands the use of state assessment practices in order to support career readiness for our high school seniors across Nebraska.
In addition, under LB417 the option to retake the national assessment used as a standard college admission test (ACT) would be provided for all 12th grade students during the fall semester of a student’s 12th grade year. The bill stipulates that the assessment shall be administered to any student that opts to take such a test at no cost to such student. Simply put, this provides all students with an attractive option to improve their college admission scores, which could result in students earning additional scholarship funds to defray the cost of college. Retaking the ACT without assessing an additional fee for the eligible seniors will enhance assessment scores based on these students having acquired more familiarity with the content and format in the national assessment instrument due to having taken it previously.
We appreciate Senator Bostar’s commitment to supporting Nebraska high school students in pursuing and fulfilling their post secondary aspirations, and thank him for proposing LB417.
Sincerely,
Dr. John Skretta
Interim Superintendent
Lincoln Public Schools
402-440-9092
