Clarksdale Collegiate Public Charter School is teaching students financial lessons at a very young age.
Every child at the school has the opportunity to open a traditional savings account set up at Southern Bancorp to help pay for college.
Executive director Amanda Johnson said Clarksdale Collegiate Public Charter School prepares children for college academically, socially, with character traits and financially. In the financial area, the school is the custodian of the savings accounts and the students make deposits at the school.
“We use a program app that allows us to make deposits each week,” Johnson said. “That’s really easy on our team members to do that. It’s their money. It’s their account. It’s in their name. It just stays there and builds as the kids are here in school.”
Clarksdale Collegiate Public Charter School currently enrolls students through third grade. In the next five years, the school is expected to have students in kindergarten through eighth grade. However, Johnson said everyone will be able to do deposit in their savings accounts all the way through high school.
“This will be a part of our tradition and routine, how we do things forever,” Johnson said. “Obviously, lessons will get more mature as the kids are getting older. We’ll talk more about exactly what they’re saving for. We’ll talk more about as they get jobs or little opportunities putting some of that money into their savings account, rather than spending it all.”
Students are able to use the money for different things including college preparatory courses before graduating high school, books and tuition.
Johnson said 80 to 85 percent of the students participated in the program during the school’s inaugural year in 2018-19 and saved a total of close to $6,000. She anticipates 95 percent of the students will participate during the current school year and the goal is to save approximately $12,000.
She said most students deposit $2 to $5 into their account per week, but some deposit amounts considerably higher. Deposits are made every Friday.
At young ages, some students have a greater understanding than others about the concept of college.
“I think a lot of them understand the concept of saving and they realize they are saving for college. I think the understanding of what college is varies from child to child. I think if there’s a sibling that has an older sibling who’s in college, they get it. They understand, ‘That’s where you go, do some more work, study some more to learn what you want to do when you grow up.’ I think for some kids it’s still kind of this unknown idea and concept, but the way we talk about it with our youngest scholars is that college is another school. It’s a school that you go when you decide what you want to do and you learn how to do it.”
