Could $50 a Week Empower High School Students to Set and Meet Education Goals? This New Orleans School Aims to Find Out

Amid the steepest economic decline in recorded U.S. history, there is renewed interest in the concept of universal basic income — cash payments to low-income families. Now, with no end to the pandemic yet in sight, a New Orleans high school is poised to carry out a first-of-its-kind small-scale pilot to see whether modest grants to seniors will boost their prospects.

Launched three years ago with the goal of closing the Black-white wealth gap in its students’ lifetimes, Rooted School hopes to give 52 weekly transfers of $50 via a cash app to 10 members of the Class of 2021, starting in September. In partnership with the New Orleans education innovation incubator 4.0 Schools, which is funding the grants and the study of their effectiveness, Rooted’s leaders hope to hire two university researchers to track its results.

The micro-pilot has a goal of graduating students from high school with the job skills to guarantee the economic stability to enable them to stay in college.

https://www.the74million.org/article/could-50-a-week-empower-high-school-students-to-set-and-meet-education-goals-this-new-orleans-school-aims-to-find-out/