Think of it like the Florida Prepaid college program, but on a smaller scale and designed for little kids and their families.
It’s called Future Bound, and it’s sponsored by the Children’s Trust. And on Thursday, the Trust and Miami-Dade County Public Schools announced Future Bound is expanding from 38 schools to every elementary and K-8 school in the county. The program, funded through federal grants and contributions from the county and the City of Miami, provides $50 seed money to every kindergarten student to save for post-secondary education. It also has an educational component, a lesson plan for kindergartners to learn the basics of financial literacy.
“These young students eventually become adults, and what this does is this invests in their opportunity to continue to think and always have post-secondary education in their mind,” said superintendent Dr. Jose Dotres.
“So this investment is a very small investment but makes a huge impact, and it really is a way that we are continuing to change the community,” said James Haj, CEO of the Chidlren’s Trust.
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According to the Trust, research shows kids who are enrolled in a college savings plan are four times more likely to graduate from high school and more likely to succeed in college.
“So as the child is getting the funding and the financial education, the families become part of it, too, so it transforms not just the child’s life but it helps the families to learn about savings, financial education, to plan for a brighter future,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor, Daniella Levine-Cava, at a news conference at Ludlam Elementary School.
At that same news conference, Yolanda Rice said her family is one of the 2,400 already benefiting from Future Bound.
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“I feel like my child is supported and we’re not just figuring out how we’re going to plan for our child’s future education by ourselves,” Rice said.
Dotres likened investing in kids to the renewal referendum, which asks voters to pay for increased teacher salaries. He said the original 2018 referendum allowed the district to retain its “A” rating, and maintained that high-performing school districts attract businesses and raise property values.
“The more we invest in teachers and the more we invest in school safety, it is a huge value-add for this community, in order for the community to be successful, we need to be able to recruit and attract the best teachers for our schools,” Dotres said.
