A Message From The Executive Chair

Welcome to the Council

On behalf of the board, staff and faculty of the Nebraska Council on Economic Education, welcome to the Nebraska Council Webpage. We are pleased that you are taking a few minutes to review the activities and accomplishments of the Council.

The Nebraska Council is accomplishing tremendous things throughout our state. Building on previous successes, we offer seminars to teachers and for the first time offered programs and program content to teachers and students across the country.

Our in-state initiatives include seminars at pre-service, in-service and post-graduate levels to introduce teachers to the economic way of thinking and how to apply it to topics such as Energy, Economics and the Environment, Economic Forces in U.S. History, International Trade and Globalization, the Ethical Foundations of Economics, K-2 Economics and many others.

In the past year we hosted seminars on the Economics of Water and held conferences at the OPPD Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant, the Western Heritage Museum, the Federal Reserve and schools across the state.

This year we joined with other groups to form the Nebraska Financial Literacy Coalition and were Platinum Sponsors of its first annual meeting in Omaha. We’ll be launching a national competition in Financial Literacy in May and will be hosting our EconChallenge ONLINE! for more than 20 states and potentially 10,000 students.

We opened another student banking program at Thayer County Intermediate School and enlisted Miss Nebraska as our official spokeswoman. Together with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (Omaha Branch) we hosted forums and workshops for business and community leaders in Kearney, Norfolk, Scottsbluff, Lincoln and Omaha.

All this and more was made possible by the generous support from Nebraska’s business and private sectors. From a $50,000 grant from State Farm Insurance to $50 contributions from grateful teachers, the Council enjoys extraordinary support from the communities it serves.

Economic literacy is the key to the future of Nebraska and our Country. When people understand the mechanisms of wealth creation, they are better able to put them to use and fulfill their hopes and dreams. Again, we thank all those who have worked so hard to make the Council and its programs successful.

Best regards,

Steve Martin, Executive Chair
Nebraska Council on Economic Education
President, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska