 Hello, this is Tim Waters, host of The Backstory. As a volunteer for Longmont Public Media, I have the good fortune of inviting people together to tell stories about what's going on in Longmont that you might not otherwise get to hear. So The Backstory is kind of the story behind the story. And in this case, the story that we're gonna tell behind the story is about the 529 Jump Program, a new initiative in Longmont that is not unique in the world, but it's pretty special here. And joining me today are the principles in making this happen. Bonnie Finley, just around my screen, Bonnie Finley is sort of two terms on Longmont City Council. She's got a big profile and resume with the State Chamber of Commerce. She's still very much involved with what's going on in Longmont, not just this program, but the Veterans Community Project. So Bonnie, thanks for your time today. And thanks for all the things you do in the community and what you've done in your history of contributions to the community. Jenny Diaz-Leone, Jenny works in the Longmont Community Services Department Division of Youth and Families, is that fair? Right? So Jenny has a chance to program and deliver all kinds of programs and services through the City of Longmont and is gonna bring a particular perspective today on this program. This is really a partnership between the City, the College Invest Program and the Education Foundation. So from the College Invest Program is Brennan Hannon, a business development manager and has been at the table around this conversation from day one. And Bonnie's gonna talk about where it got started. Jenny's gonna talk about what it means. Brennan's gonna talk about what it is. And then Josh Atherton is gonna talk about how it works and Josh is the executive director of the St. Vrain Valley Education Foundation. So at the end of the day for parents and teachers and others who wanna dial up or log in and learn more about this, Josh in the foundation, he's the guy and they're the place, right? That'll be the source of information and kind of the operational heart and soul of this as it moves forward. So that's the introduction, let's get started. Bonnie, you as a member of City Council played a huge leadership role in this to get it started. You've continued to stay with it. Talk about where this came from. Why would a City Council care about or be interested in and then have that interest manifest this way? Kids who are ages zero to five, in this case, kids who are five and in kindergarten, where'd this come from? Why was the City Council interested? The City Council, and I believe it was 2019, sat around and thought, what do we wanna be? What do we wanna be known for? What do we wanna look like in the future? And one of the things that we really wanted to focus on was being the best place for children to grow up in. And we talked about how we value our children and what that meant. And it went on to, okay, how can we make sure that every child in Longmont feels valued and has opportunities that perhaps they don't have now? And one of those ideas was to let them know, first of all, that we believed in them, that we believed they could be successful here in Longmont. And we would give them $50 if they started an account for post-secondary education. Those accounts are called 529 accounts. Not everyone knows what that means, but it's a college invest account and it doesn't have to be used for college, it can be used for any kind of post-secondary education. And really, kids who have those kinds of accounts are seven times more likely to go on to post-secondary education, which means they're more likely to graduate from high school. If kids know that people believe in them, they'll believe in themselves. And so we started our committee to make sure that we could make that happen. City Council, once we had our committee and had our idea, City Council did provide money for us to begin the program. And if it hadn't been for COVID, we would have been wildly successful by now, I'm sure, but we have had some success and we look forward to more success in the future. So this is a city saying to five-year-olds, we have confidence in you and we're investing in your future. That's pretty powerful. Well, and it's true. When I was born here in Longmont and my kids were born here in Longmont and the difference between me and my children, quite frankly, we were both brought up to believe that we would go on to college. So it just didn't even occur to us not to finish high school or not to do well in school because we knew that we would go on. I had friends and my children had friends in the same exact socioeconomic group whose parents didn't go to high school or their parents didn't go to college and they just didn't have that expectation. And I really believe that if you have that expectation, you're more likely to fulfill it. So that's where it started. Brennan, I'm gonna ask you to pick it up with what is it? When we talk about 529 and you made one of you, one of you, I wanna talk about where did the jump come from with 29? But that's where it started. What is it? What should anybody know who doesn't already have a 529 account? What should they know from you in college to invest about what it is? And then you can talk about all the benefits and how to make it happen. You're muted. You're muted, so. A 529 is a simple account. It really is a tax advantage way for parents to put away money or grandparents. A lot of times it's grandparents. To set money aside, it grows tax-free. And then when you take the money out, it's a tax-free withdrawal to help offset the cost of higher education. Now we know that cost of higher education continues to increase. And that's why we have in Colorado a program called College Invest. We administer the Colorado 529. There's four different accounts you can open. We're a not-for-profit. We report up through the Department of Higher Education. And that's why this particular partnership with this community education foundation is so important for us because it hits really close to home. This is part of our mission is to get Colorado into a much better spot. So when kids graduate from college, they're actually able to buy homes and have families and start their life because they're not burdened with student debt. So that's part of the mission, right? Part of our vision. And what we know is Bonnie had actually talked about this for a minute. Is kids, the state of Nevada did a research study on this and they found that kids were seven times more likely to go off to college if they had a 529 and they were told about it. And that's whether there was $200 in the 529 or $20,000. That's seven times more likely still applied. So socioeconomic status doesn't matter in this equation. Those statistics still remain the same. What we also know is a bachelor's degree or some type of higher education is still very valuable in the marketplace. As a matter of fact, high school degrees are losing value in the marketplace. People that have only a high school degree are starting to see salary decreases when they go out into the job market. Millennials is the most recent generation we have statistics on for would they benefit and those with a higher education on average make about $17,000 more dollars each year from having that type of higher education. So it's important. We know that people have better health outcomes. People live longer. I mean, it's crazy how much this higher education makes a difference. So let us help you help the children, right? Let us help you in conjunction with the Longmont City Council and the St. Vrain Education Foundation make this a reality for you and your family as well. No, that's great. I'm gonna ask you, I'm gonna surprise you with this question and I promise you I wouldn't surprise you but even a gross estimate, if we put $50 into account and it stays there as a five year old until they're 18 or graduated from high school over that 13 year period of time. Is there just a rough estimate of what that might accrue to, right? With interest, if there was never another dollar deposited that count? I don't actually know what $50 turns into but I can kind of figure it out because on average your money doubles every 10 years, right? If you put money in. So in 20 years that would be $200, right? So if that was a never another dime what I can tell you is if you put 200 bucks a month into one of these accounts you'll have at least enough to cover at least 33% of a college education. So that's gonna give you on average about $100,000 to spend on a college education. So, and you can do the math backwards from there a little bit but that gives people an idea of what does it look like? How much do I have to save? I think the most important piece is opening an account, getting the $50 in, you can have family contribute. You can have friends contribute. You can have a neighbor who likes your child contribute. So everybody can help. I know with my account, my dad puts money into the accounts I have for the nieces and nephews and it's really helped us grow their education fund. So even if you might not personally be able to fund what you consider is a lot of money it might help to have, it takes a village, right? So it might help to have friends and family to contribute as well. So the city contributes $50. No strings attached to that for five year olds when they're in kindergarten. And that $50 actually is way more than $50. It's a much bigger contribution because it grows. And every Christmas, every birthday, every holiday, Easter, all those times in the year when there is gifting, this would make it easy to gift today that turns into a much bigger gift when a child graduates from high school and continues their education after high school. Is that the picture? Oh yeah, for sure. I did this for my nieces. My dad now automated his contributions. He puts money in every two weeks, which is wonderful. And we did very small amounts. Every new baby in the family, I opened a 529. And then I agreed to put 25 bucks a month in which doesn't sound like a lot but when everybody's having babies it adds up quick. So I put 25 dollars a month into every kid's account. So the seven year old, I think we have like $4,000 in her account. And that's still gonna, she's gonna probably end up with 30 grand and we've just been trickling money in there. So with any kind of effort, you could actually have a much better result than we will. But we're still gonna be very happy with what we'll have to help contribute to that fund for them. And it doesn't have to be a bachelor's degree somebody's pursuing. Any life preparation, job preparation, community college, vocational training is all legitimate use of those funds, yes? Definitely, yeah. I've helped kids, I helped a young man in Colorado Spring go to auto mechanic school. I helped a young woman go to the Paul Mitchell College of Hair Design in Colorado Springs. I even helped a grandparent become a ski instructor. And he used a 529 in his retirement to follow one of his dreams, right? So it is pretty flexible. I think one of the most important parts to remember is, because the biggest question we get is, what if my child doesn't go on for higher education? Well, you can pass it to another kid, right? You can use it for your own education, higher education. You can use it for so many different things that it's very flexible, these families with lots of options so that money's not held hostage somewhere. Right, so we know where it came from. We know what the it is here. We gotta learn a little bit about what it means. So, Jenny, you're the voice now of multiple generations in this conversation, right? You represent a span. So you work every day with kids in this community and with their families. Based on your experience of working with our kids, what do you think this means to them? And I'll follow up with another question after we get a chance to listen. Yeah, thank you for that. So something that I wanted to say is that we do have a program here at the Youth Center called Aspire where we work with first-generation students on their pathway to higher education. And so to think along with myself and them, if they would have been able to start a program like this when they were five years old, they would have already had a little seat of money that could have been supporting them. On top of maybe scholarships or on top of other financial support, but they would have already had a start. And that's what we really wanna get our families to do is get a start. I know that for families like myself, it might be challenging to put extra money on there, especially if we're trying to pay rent or we're trying to take care of everybody in the family or support extended family. But even $5, $10, that money over time adds up. And again, I wanna really make a strong point that it's the start that matters, right? And over time, if you think about it in those, what did you say, it was about 13 years or 18 years that that'll accrue, it's gonna make a big difference whether it covers your books, whether it covers part of your housing fee. That's all important. That's all part of the things that we don't think about a lot when we think about higher education and every little bit of money supports you to get to the goals that you have. That's one of the things that we hear from a lot of our students actually. Ginny, I know you've been in this community since you were a very young child. What would it have meant to you, right? When you're a five-year-old, if somebody had said, Ginny, we have so much confidence in you that you're gonna finish high school and go on. What would that have meant? I mean, I know it's hard to think back when any of us were five. But what kind of a statement does that mean to a five-year-old, you think? I think to me, like Barney, I actually heard myself, you're gonna go to college and this is part of what's gonna be in your future. But the question was always like, how are we gonna pay for it, right? And how are we gonna make that a reality? And by the city investing this money to each student, they say to me, it sounds like I have somebody else on my team and I have somebody else that I can look to for support. And that is really important, especially, like I said, with my experience as a first-generation student, we don't really know the ropes. We don't really know a lot of the resources that's part of why we created that program, Aspire. And it's just one more way that you have a step up and one more way that you're gonna start thinking about and preparing at the age of five, right? If I think that in school, we hear about college, but it seems like, oh, it's so far away. I don't have to think about it now. Then you get to middle school and it's like, ah, it's so really far away. And then all of a sudden it's your senior year of high school and you're like, what am I gonna do next, right? If you start talking and having those conversations at the age of five, that completely changes your trajectory and it just keeps, every year you keep learning more and you keep getting further ahead than some of the people that might not have the resources to be able to start having those conversations. So it makes quite a difference to start that young. The power of self-image and a vision for oneself, right? That combination. And that somebody has the confidence in you that you're gonna get it done. So we've heard where it came from, what it is, why it's important, Josh, we need to learn how it works. So you were willing to step up and put the foundation kind of in the center of this to work with the city, to work with College Invest to make it operational. Talk about what that means. What should parents know? Teachers know, philanthropists know who will watch this and wonder, how do I contribute to this? How does this become the object of my fundraising effort this year for whatever the philanthropic group might be? Educators. Well, I think what they should know is that they're stakeholders across the city who really, really care about investing in our students and our youth here in our local communities. And when Bonnie approached me about this idea, I just thought about our mission at the foundation here at St. Mary Valley Schools Education Foundation and our mission just to be very easy is student success, teacher excellence. And when you're thinking about student success, it goes beyond just K-12, it's locally here, we work really, really hard with St. Mary Valley Schools who's a great school district. We have great administration, great teachers, great schools. And when they move that task on their cap from one side to the other and they step across that stage, it doesn't mean we just weigh them goodbye and wish the best. We really want them to be set up for success going to the future and making sure that they have financial help to do that, I think is really, really important. And so when Bonnie approached me to do this and I talked to our board, we were excited about it because the city is really putting up the funds for this. And as a foundation, we're gonna be kind of linked between the community, the school district or teachers or parents and just try to help move this forward. And so if one of our parents here locally or teachers or someone mentioned grandparents, if you wanna do this, it's really easy. And I would say probably the best way to do it is just go to 5.9jump.org. That actually takes you to our foundation websites and we've set the website up just to try to answer a lot of questions that our parents here locally in St. Brain could have about what we're doing here locally with the city of Longmont with the city staff and the council. And then go beyond that the next step after that once you decide, hey, my student is a kindergartner and something I really would like to do, I'd like to get this $50 is you can go from our website to collegeinvest.org, we have a link on our website or you can go directly to collegeinvest.org and you go there and you select the plan that you wanna do. And I will say, Tim, before I really committed anything, I talked to Brennan, I talked to Bonnie, I myself went up and had set up a 5.9 plan through College Invest. My wife and I had set up one years ago for our kids but I wanted to see how easy it was. Within 10 minutes, I had set up the plan with College Invest. We had selected direct portfolio which I think is pretty common with most people. And I have it set up just taking money out of our bank account to fund that. And we've linked up with grandparents and uncles who want to do a birthday present to our children. And you just, you get a code from the system, you give them the code, they click on the link, put the code in, link some up with the account, they can make the deposit and it's done. And it's a great tax advantage for them too. And I'm not a tax expert. Of course, I always say, talk to your tax professionals first and foremost about any information on that. But we're trying to make it super, super easy. And once you do that, then what you can do is go back to our website, 529jump.org, and there's a form on there and the form is very easy. All we ask is your name. We ask what your account number is with College Invest that's really important so we can link up the money and then what school your students at. And what we do is since we get that information within about four to six weeks, we will actually send that payment over to College Invest and they'll put it in the student's account. So it is as, first of all, there's no other identifiers here. Does somebody have to have a social security card to do this? Nope. And if they don't have a bank account, money in a checking account, is that essential? I don't know, it's probably a question for Brennan. I'll maybe put that over to Brennan. Is that essential, Brennan? You do need, you don't need a bank account. You just need to fund it somehow, right? So maybe you put $10 in it. Maybe you put $15 in it, whatever it may be. I think the minimum to open is $25. But remember, Longmont's gonna make that $50. We're gonna, yes. They're gonna make that minimum for you. So you don't have to worry about that. What it is, as an account owner, you do need to have a social security number or a TIN or something like that to identify yourself when you apply for an account. So that is important. I wanted to, if it's okay, Tim, to mention two other things that I missed that I think will be important to people. And one of those is we have a scholarship program. So let's say you've been saving in your 529. You have a kid that starts to go off to school. At that point, you'd apply for a scholarship. And the scholarship right now is up to $2,000 a year. So that could be an extra $8,000. Now, you have to have had a 529 to do that. And there's a minimum balance. But I think it's like $2,000. So it's pretty attainable. Because remember, if you've had 18 years to save, hopefully you could meet that minimum balance. But there's also a matching grant. And that one is you put in $500 one year, we'll also put in $500. So those are two programs we have to help the community. Now you're in Longmont. You're very lucky that you have the Community Foundation here that's doing this. So why not compliment with that with some of the other programs available as well and just boost your savings there? So back to Josh, if I'm a parent or a grandparent and I'm not certain what to do, I'm not real comfortable with working with the internet. And can I call the foundation? Can I get some help that way? Yep, you can call the foundation all of our information is on our website. And I would also say too, if you're having difficulties with your bank account, Elevation's Credit Union is a great partner, not only with our foundation here locally, but with a lot of nonprofits in the area. And Michelle Sulek who is a community manager with them has agreed that anyone can reach out to Elevation's Credit Union, let them know that you're setting up a 529 plan and that you would like to get assistance. They do have folks there who speak Spanish and so that shouldn't be a difficulty at all. And I would say too, I know college and VESI due to because they're working with financial institutions, they need that social security number and or end or 10 number. We do not need that information for the $50 deposit. Once you have that up and open, you do all that through college and VESI, which is a subcategory, Brendan, if you will, of the Department of Education of the state of Colorado, you will fill out the form through us just to confirm that you've opened it with your account number, but you don't need a social security number for us to get that $50 sent to your account. Well, where I was going with my question about bank accounts was just what you shared about the Elevation's Credit Union. They're willing to work with parents or grandparents to create accounts that don't have to have money in it to create the 529 account. And then you're notified and then the deposit gets made, right? Is this, Josh, is this limited to kids who are living inside the city limits of Longmont? No, and that's a great question, Tim. And I would just congratulate and really thank city council for Longmont for agreeing to expand it beyond city limits. You know, I was born and raised here in Longmont. Four generation Longmont citizen here and we live here and we're pretty lucky. I might be a little biased, of course, but it could have been very easy for Tim and city council to say, you know, we're just gonna keep it to our citizens here in Longmont, but Longmont's always been at the forefront, if you will, of doing things here in our local community. And we're really hoping as a committee here, 529, that it will encourage our other local communities, whether it be the Tritown area, Niawatt lines, whatever it may be, to really start moving forward with this. And so all you have to do is live within the same frame boundaries, the same frame value schools boundaries and be a kindergartner. That's all you need. And you can, and the other part of this too, is if you already have a 529 plan through College of Vest, that's okay. Just let us know what your account number is. Remember, your student has to be a current kindergartner. And I would also say to, we've got a lot of questions from people saying, well, you know, I've got a second grader. Can I have access to the 50? Right now you can't because we've decided to keep it just to that kindergarten population. But if you want to open up a 529 for your second grader, do it. And again, it's very, very easy. We did it with our family and we've been very, very happy with it. And with the growth of the stock market over the last couple of years, and it's pretty neat to see that go up. To know that my children have the opportunity to have another source of revenue to help pay for some of that college. So if other, who knows what, who watches this, right? Hopefully the link for this version of the backstory will become viral, right? It'll go viral, or at least in Boulder County, it'll go viral. So if municipalities, right? If the other municipalities that are part of the St. Rain Valley School District, you mentioned a couple, or parents or grandparents within those areas or philanthropic organizations wanted to contribute here. How would they do that, Josh? Yeah, we have a donation page on our website at 529jump.org that you can go to and you can donate directly to the campaign. If you have questions, you can reach out to me via our website. If I don't have the answers, I'll connect with Bonnie or Brennan or Jenny or Tim or anyone else on the committee and we can help with that. And I think the key is that we want to help our students right now for the future. And then I think that for me, Tim, that's probably the difficult part of this is that 10, 15 years, it's a lot, it's really hard for us to focus on that because we're working on challenges and problems in the current, but we need to start making that deposit on the future so our students have opportunities. So if you are a city manager, or if you're on a council somewhere within the St. Rain Valley Schools and your interests, then reach out to us and we'd be glad to chat with you. Bonnie, you're supposed to a long month city council would appreciate other town councils, city councils pitching in to help with this. You're muted, Bonnie. Well, you can see me laugh. Yeah, I could. They'd love to have participation with our other St. Rain Valley cities. Oh, yeah. I think we just need to let them know and ask them. You know, in any nonprofit organization, all you have to do is ask. You just have to, you know, you just need to ask. And we haven't, we, that's one thing we need to do going forward is to ask those cities to participate. So if there are any groups out there that are thinking about what should be the target of their fundraising campaign, this 529 jump might get on their agenda, right? One of the priorities. Anybody want to answer the question? Where does the jump come from? Jump up. Oh, it's jump start. Aren't we jump starting their 529 program? So, all right. Who wants to have the last words here in this backstory? I don't know if I want the last word, but I would say that if you do donate to the foundation, we are a five one C three. It is a tax donation, not a tax donation, but you can claim it on your taxes and we'll give you credit for that too. Yes, exactly. And, you know, I think, and I just want to, again, the last word here, I don't know if it was the last word, but I want to commend the council for city of Longmont for really stepping up. We have heard of other city councils throughout the nation who have done this. I believe, and I might be wrong here, Tim, but I believe Longmont is the first city council to do this within Colorado. And I think it's just going to, it's going to take a village for us to help. And, you know, we're not, we're not talking just those folks who live in poverty. We're talking about everyone on every different income level. And even for middle class families, college is fast becoming something that's going to be very, it's going to be a very big burden, financial burden on students. And it's easy to go right now, see you bolder right now, costs about $26,000 for one year, which includes room and board. And to think now in 2021, within four years, you can come out with a four year degree and have over a hundred thousand dollars worth of debt is very, very scary for many families. And so I want to commend city council, Tim, and of course Bonnie, congratulations. Bonnie, you want any last word from your city council perspective or any of the other hats you wear? Well, I just want to say that city council and the people of Longmont do believe in their kids. And we believe in that they can all be successful. We just need to give them a hand up. All right. You know, I've done a bunch of backstories on different topics, none of them have been any more fun than this one to do. So I do appreciate, I said at the outset, you all make huge contributions to your communities, three of you in this one. And Brennan, I know that's true where you live and obviously where you work and the differences you make across the state. So thanks for all that. Thanks for your time this afternoon. And thanks for helping to share the backstory on the 529 Jump Program in Longmont, Colorado. Thank you, Tim.