Asset Building Perspectives & Testimonies

The Meadowlark Scholarship Act: Testimony on L.B. 544 Before the Education Committee, 106th Nebraska Legislature

In late January 2019, legislators in the state of Nebraska introduced a package of bills designed to broaden access to postsecondary education and to encourage saving in the state 529 college savings plan. The proposed legislation’s central piece, the Meadow Lark Scholarship Act, would create a universal, at-birth, $100 seed deposit for every child born in the state. Other bills would authorize an automatic savings match program for low- and moderate-income families who save in the state 529 plan, exclude 529 contributions in determining eligibility for need-based public benefits, and make other changes to the 529 plan. On February 5, 2019, Policy Director Margaret Clancy testified before the legislature’s Education Committee on CSD’s Child Development Account research and its implications for the legislative deliberations. Her prepared remarks are preserved here.

Project: College Success

Citation

Clancy, M. M. (2019). The Meadowlark Scholarship Act: Testimony on L.B. 544 Before the Education Committee, 106th Nebraska Legislature (CSD Testimony No. 19-03). St. Louis, MO: Washington University, Center for Social Development.