Income program aims to help students get degree

People under 30 with child may seek monthly stipend

Mayor Alan Webber announced Tuesday the city is laying the groundwork to participate in an income assistance pilot program that could benefit scores of community college students.

The program, which must be approved by the City Council, would establish monthly stipends of up to $400 for one year, starting in the fall semester, for low-income Santa Fe Community College students with kids.

Part of the funding for the initiative would come from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who donated $15 million to a coalition of cities offering the Mayors for a Guaranteed Income project. Santa Fe would have to match the organization’s $500,000 grant with $500,000 of its own funds and $175,000 in community donations.

Webber said at news conference Tuesday at the college that higher education students in Santa Fe often have to make

a decision about whether to stay in school and finish their degree, drop out or reduce course loads to take care of their families.

The proposed stipend would help lighten that burden, he said.

“Too often in Santa Fe and New Mexico, people are trapped in an iron triangle where they start out without enough money, which means they don’t get enough education which means they don’t get a good enough paying job, and they end up without enough money,” Webber said. “That iron triangle needs to be broken.”

Santa Fe Community College President Becky Rowley said campus surveys indicate financial concerns are the leading cause of students dropping out.

Students participating in the assistance program would have to have at least one child, be under 30, be earning 200 percent or less of the federal poverty level and be working toward a certificate or a degree.

About 75 percent of young minority families in Santa Fe live on incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level, or less than $50,000 for a family of four, according to federal census data and the New Mexico Department of Health.

Rowley said about 41 percent of students at the community college have a household income below $25,000, and almost 60 percent of low-income students cannot afford to go to college full time.

Students who take full-time course loads are substantially more likely to graduate than part-time students, she added.

“These are magic words — ‘guaranteed monthly income,’ $400 to $500 a month,” Rowley said. “With this support, our student parents will be able to focus on their education without having to worry about the financial demands of daily life.”

Data from the college show about 10 percent of enrolled students would qualify for the program.

Students would have to apply for the program through the school’s financial aid department and would be selected through a lottery.

Webber would join about 40 other mayors across the nation in the Mayors for a Guaranteed

Income project, led by former Stockton, Calif., Mayor Michael Tubbs, who launched a program in his community in 2019. Santa Fe would be the first city in New Mexico to join the coalition.

The City Council’s Quality of Life Committee will consider a resolution on the program Wednesday.

The measure is scheduled to reach the City Council on June 30.

If the city completes the program, the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania will use data from Santa Fe for a national study on guaranteed income. Recipients will be asked to participate in a survey on their experiences.

Webber said the city hopes to raise an additional $1 million to fund a second year of the program and boost the monthly payments to $500.

Kyra Ochoa, director of the city’s Community Health and Safety Department, said she is excited to see views in the nation shift when it comes to direct cash assistance programs.

“When people are having trouble making ends meet, they need money,” Ochoa said. “The end. It shouldn’t be something that we have to explain or study, but it is.”