Impact of Income and Assets on Parents' Educational Expectations: CollegeBound Boost Saint Paul, Implications for Ending Poverty

Abstract

This study takes a first look at the question of whether in- come policies such as guaranteed income are more effective when combined with quarterly deposits and delivered using a Children’s Savings Account structure. All participants in what has become the City of Saint Paul’s CollegeBound Boost also participate in the City’s CSA program. Therefore, all participants, including the control group, have a CSA account. In addition, to participate in CollegeBound Boost, families had to have annual incomes of no more than 300% of the federal poverty line. All participants (n=1,065) were randomly assigned on a rolling basis to one of three conditions: 1) no-treatment control; 2) quarterly CSA deposits only ($250 per quarter), or 3) a combined condition including quarterly deposits and guaranteed income (GI payments of $500 per month). Findings from this study indicate that combining quarter- ly deposits with a guaranteed income increases parents’ expectations for their child to enroll in college by 8.2%.