East Aurora School District 131’s board heard a presentation from the city on Monday about a new program, Aurora Promise, which would give kindergarten students in the city an educational savings account with a starting balance of $50 to go toward education after high school.
But the program received substantial criticism from school board members, who cited concerns over data privacy and interest rates.
Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin announced the rollout of the initiative in August, and in December the City Council approved a 20-year, $1.96 million contract with Operation Hope to manage the program.
The program is based on one in San Francisco that has been going for 18 years. There have been a number of such programs across the country, but Aurora Promise would be Illinois’ first.
It’s set to start with a pilot program next year, in which families can opt in to the program during kindergarten enrollment. They would receive $50 into the account from the city, along with other financial incentives.
The pilot program will only involve East Aurora School District 131 and West Aurora School District 129. The pilot is set to begin with next year’s kindergarten class.
The goal with the pilot is to make sure parents understand how the program works, Aurora Chief Community Services Officer Viviana Ramirez said at the meeting.
Following the pilot, the city intends to eventually extend the program to all six public school districts in the city. Part of the Oswego School District, Indian Prairie School District, Batavia School District and the Kaneland School District are in Aurora.
The program would be only for public school children.
They also want to eventually make it an opt-out program, meaning all children from Aurora enrolled in kindergarten in a public school would automatically get the savings account.
While money that students and families contribute to the account can be withdrawn, the city said the goal is for it to be put toward post-secondary education, such as college or a trade school.
The $50 is intended to be a starting point that encourages kids to save, said Martha Paschke, the city’s director of Innovation and Strategy.
“Low- to moderate-income children are not frequently holders of savings,” Paschke told the East Aurora school board at Monday’s meeting. “A lot of kids don’t have that as an established habit in their family, and so this is a way for the city to play a role in kind of spurring that habit and that behavior of saving.”
Alongside the savings accounts, the city plans to hold financial literacy programs, for example, which children can receive additional financial incentives for attending.
At Monday’s meeting, board members raised concerns over two main aspects of the program – the data sharing agreement with the organization managing the accounts, Operation Hope, and that the money will not bear interest.
Paschke noted that Operation Hope will maintain a digital database to track the funds in a single account and how much belongs to each kid.
Board member Bruce Schubert noted that the data that would be shared with Operation Hope included information like student names, ID numbers, the school they attend, parent or guardian names and education levels, guardian mailing addresses, phone numbers and email addresses, the primary language they speak and whether they are part of the National Lunch Program.
“That’s a lot of data on our kids – and families,” Schubert said on Monday. “So we need to be very protective of that data.”
Also raised was the question of whether data given to Operation Hope could be subpoenaed, an issue that had first been raised by former East Aurora board member Alex Arroyo, who now sits on the Kane County Board. He said he had raised concerns at a previous board meeting, and the board had ultimately tabled it until they received more information.
“We don’t just dive into things,” former board member Arroyo told The Beacon-News on Friday, saying he felt the board needed more information about the program and Operation Hope before making its final decision, particularly on the data sharing agreement.
The data schools have about students and families has been a particular source of concern in recent weeks, after Donald Trump’s administration announced that sensitive locations like schools and churches would not be off-limits for immigration arrests. For example, in Oklahoma, a proposed rule approved by the state Board of Education a few days ago could make it a requirement that families show proof of their child’s U.S. citizenship or legal immigration status.
“If immigration comes and asks for this data of kids with no (Social Security numbers), who’s obliged to turn it over?” Arroyo asked regarding the sharing of data with an outside organization.
Operation Hope operates a similar program in Atlanta, Paschke said, along with other programs focused on financial equity.
“We have vetted Operation Hope,” Ramirez said in response to the board’s questions about data privacy. “These are conversations that we have had to make sure that the information that is contained in the data sharing agreement is treated with the strictest confidence, only for the limited purpose needed. That information would not be disseminated to any other partner. It won’t be sold.”
The bulk of concern came from the idea of an opt-out program, in which this data was automatically shared with Operation Hope, as opposed to an opt-in program.
But the representatives from the city emphasized that moving to an opt-out program after the pilot is over is their goal because families don’t have to take any action to enroll their children, with the hope that it will engage a higher number of families that way.
East Aurora School District Superintendent Jennifer Norrell pointed out at the meeting that the pilot offered time for the board and city to have further conversations about data privacy concerns before the program shifts to opt-out.
The representatives from the city also explained that the fund is not a traditional savings account, meaning funds contributed to it would not bear interest. Board members also questioned this part of the program, asking why families would want this type of account, as opposed to, for example, a Bright Start 529 College Savings Plan.
“It’s important for kids to have savings accounts, but it’s also important that, you know, the savings accounts yield money,” said East Aurora School Board President Annette Johnson at the meeting. “If their parents are investing, then they would be much better off going to another bank.”
Paschke emphasized that students are encouraged to also have those accounts, but that a 529 account requires more set-up from parents, and said that an opt-out program is “the best way to engage all families in an equitable way.”
In West Aurora School District, the savings account plan was presented to the school board on Jan. 21. The board did not vote on the plan since there would be no financial cost to the district, a spokesperson for the district said, but they will be moving forward with the pilot program.
When Aurora families in the West Aurora district register their soon-to-be kindergartners for the 2025-26 school year beginning in early February, they will see a question asking whether they wish to opt into the pilot, the spokesperson said.
The East Aurora board ultimately did not vote on the motion at the Monday meeting. A vote on the savings account plan is not on the agenda for East Aurora’s next meeting on Feb. 3, according to a district spokesperson, but Johnson said it is likely to be discussed at the following meeting on Feb. 18.
In the meantime, the East Aurora board and district plan to discuss the issue further with the city.
“Obviously, savings accounts for kids are a good thing,” Johnson told The Beacon-News on Friday. “It’s just, we have to, you know, make sure that all of our procedures are in order. I think we just ended up with more questions.”
But, in the meantime, she said this issue has reinvigorated an interest in improving financial literacy offerings in the district.
“I will probably advocate more … to start teaching more financial literacy and things like that,” Johnson said.
mmorrow@chicagotribune.com