The process of receiving child-support payments is about to enter the 21st century with the state's launching of a pilot program that will allow parents to access the payments through ATM-style debit cards rather than paper checks.

Not only could the new system be more convenient to support recipients, but it is anticipated that the state would save $15 million over five years as a result of the change.

The pilot program will begin with about 6,300 parents in Dauphin County and, if successful, the new system will be implemented statewide.

It's good that, at least initially, the ATM cards won't be mandatory. Parents still would have the option of having their payments handled via direct deposit.

However, as debit cards continue to gain popularity for such payments, it is likely that the use of paper checks and direct deposit will increasingly lose favor.

Under the pilot program, which is affiliated with MasterCard, parents will be able to use the debit card to make purchases and get cash back, in most instances with no fee.

No doubt thousands of Pennsylvania support recipients will welcome the change wholeheartedly.

The South Butler County School Board deserves appreciation from district residents for releasing full details Wednesday of the district's latest contract offer to teachers. Residents have a right to know what was being offered and how it could have affected their taxes, if teachers hadn't rejected the proposal Aug. 26.The only problem is how long it took for the board to release the information - one day shy of two weeks. All of the information should have been released to the public on Aug. 27 at the latest. Instead, in the aftermath of the vote, the board released only a brief synopsis that became a basis for confusion and conflicting interpretations among residents.That confusion is what prompted the board to exercise good judgment on Wednesday and release the information.The board should release quickly the full details of future proposals, whether they are accepted or rejected.Meanwhile, the South Butler County Education Association should be more open about its voting. The public has a right to know how many teachers voted on any proposal, how many voted to accept the proposed pact and how many voted to reject it.It's understandable that doing that could in some instances undermine the teachers' bargaining power. However, the public has a right to be privy to how close the district and teachers are to achieving an agreement, especially since teachers have already authorized a strike, if necessary."We've gotten a lot of questions from the public and we feel there is a gross misrepresentation of information going around out there," said board member Glenn Lang, one of the board's lead negotiators.Both the board and teachers are to blame for that.

It's troubling that the Air Force is only now coming to grips with the issue of sexual assault.The information contained in a report released Aug. 30 was available to top Air Force officials long before now, if they had made a genuine attempt to obtain it and confront the problem.The report, which was the product of a four-month probe begun in February, portrays an environment in which many women failed to report rapes because they feared disciplinary action stemming from such allegations. That's not the kind of atmosphere that is supposed to exist, and that's not the kind of picture Air Force recruiters paint as they strive to obtain new female enlistments.That the findings were assembled from investigations at 85 - not just a few - installations in the United States and overseas adds credibility to the information gathered and behooves the Air Force to make substantial changes in how it identifies and deals with the alleged sexual assaults.It can be viewed as incredible that the report specifically states that "the Air Force must do a better job of defining and understanding the crime of sexual assault and the behavior that spawns it." Really, what's so mysterious about the offense that prohibited understanding many years ago?However, the report is correct that the Air Force must work through its commanders "to create an institutional environment that refuses to accept or facilitate such behavior."The study in question was begun a year after a sex abuse scandal surfaced at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. In the wake of that scandal, the academy overhauled its top leadership and policies on sexual assault. Dozens of current and former female cadets told investigators that they were ignored or punished after reporting assaults.Poor response programs to such incidents have been a major culprit, the report said. Meanwhile, similar inadequate response programs have dogged the Air Force.Why the Air Force's problem was not addressed much sooner is anybody's guess. But now, there is no excuse for the problem not being resolved so it never again resurfaces.