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Nebraska Farm Bureau seeks more support for FFA, other youth groups

The Nebraska Farm Bureau is backing state legislation that would create and fund the Nebraska Center for Student Leadership and Extended Learning.

Farm Bureau president Keith Olsen says without the new center, the Department of Education will not be able to fund statewide coordination of career education and leadership organizations. Those groups include FFA, DECA, Future Business Leaders of America and others.

Formany years, Nebraska has relied on federal funds, provided through the Perkins Act, to coordinate the student organizations. But Olsen says the federal funds are no longer adequate to support the necessary programs.

“This amount of funding has been basically staticsince the early 1990’s,” Olsen says, “and so with inflation taking money away from these programs, a number of cuts have been made in staffing because of no increase in funding.”

Olsen says the Education Department has cut nearly 20 full-time positions since1992.

The Education Committee has advanced the bill, LB476, to General File.