The first newborns to receive free college savings accounts through the city of St. Paul in 2020 are now in pre-kindergarten, and ready to learn a bit more about college, according to the mayor’s office.
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter will join officials from the St. Paul Public Schools, Bremer Bank and the city’s Office of Financial Empowerment on Saturday morning to announce an expansion of CollegeBound St. Paul — a cornerstone effort of the mayor’s administration to connect residents with college savings accounts at birth — into the public school system curriculum.
The goal of “CollegeBound Elementary” is to encourage students and families to be thinking ahead about higher education through bank visits, college tours and “deposit days,” where the city will make $10 and $25 deposits into student college savings accounts following an in-classroom activity. Students will be eligible to receive up to $350 through their elementary years.
Carter will address the media around 10 a.m. Saturday at the Bremer Bank branch at 423 Snelling Ave. N., where further details of the “CollegeBound Elementary” program will be made public. He’s scheduled to be joined by Bremer Bank president and chief executive officer Jeanne Crain, St. Paul Public Schools Interim Superintendent John Thein and Office of Financial Empowerment Interim Director Ikram Koliso, as well as other CollegeBound St. Paul partners and families.
Kaz Hover, the interim CollegeBound program manager in the Office of Financial Empowerment, said any child who is enrolled in pre-K in the St. Paul Public School system this fall will be enrolled and will be eligible for a college savings account through Bremer Bank, preloaded with $50 from the city, regardless of when or where they born or whether they currently reside in St. Paul.
“It expands eligibility a little bit,” Hover said.
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