St. Paul’s college savings program shatters expectations as it's total savings surpasses $4.3 million.
The College-bound Initiative now has over 21,000 children enrolled, with the city originally providing an initial $50 deposit for St. Paul's newborns.
Director of the Office for Financial Empowerment Marcus Owens says the program's growth follows a recent expansion that allows St. Paul Public Schools' pre-K students to opt into the program even if they were born outside the city.
"So their birth year matters, because it's anyone after 2020, right? And so as they are enrolled into St. Paul Public schools, we work with families to opt in to opening an account in their child's name," says Owens.
He says right now the city is working on integrating financial literacy lessons directly into classrooms and will host a "money action day" for families on June 6.
"We're gonna be partnering with the friends of 'CollegeBound,' which is an organization set up to do the bulk of the fundraising and stewardship of those resources, to ensure that we're able to move forward and help families and institutions in growing their accounts," Owens adds.
