Consentino Students to Be Eligible for College Seed Money

State Rep. Brian S. Dempsey, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means.

Consentino School has been selected to participate in a new pilot program, putting money into college savings accounts for low-income middle school students and families in select Massachusetts Gateway Cities, said state Rep. Brian S. Dempsey, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means.

SoarMA is a two-year pilot program offering seventh grade students seed-funded savings accounts. Enrolled Consentino School seventh graders are eligible to participate starting during the 2017-2018 school year.

“I am thrilled that Haverhill has been chosen to participate in the SoarMA program. This initiative is an outstanding opportunity for families in Haverhill to begin preparing for their children’s future,” Dempsey said.  “529 savings programs are great tool to help parents and their children to start saving and planning for the costs of college.”

The initiative, funded through public-private partnerships, provide a matched savings program and offers a financial education curriculum. SoarMA aims to increase the percentage of families saving for higher education while also boosting post-secondary enrollment and graduation rates for the participating cities. The two-year initiative includes the cities of Haverhill, Lowell, Pittsfield, Springfield and Worcester

These 529 college savings accounts will be offered through the Office of the Massachusetts State Treasurer and Receiver General, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority (MEFA) and Inversant.  Inversant is a Boston-based non-profit organization that will support SoarMA with its existing curriculum model. Inversant’s mission is to utilize parental engagement to ensure that every low-to-moderate income family has the resources and understanding they need to achieve their goals for higher education.

“Access to an affordable higher education provides a pathway to economic stability for many children and families,” said state Treasurer Deb Goldberg. “I am excited to join the effort of these five gateway cities to help ensure Massachusetts’ next generation of leaders has a bright future.”

9 thoughts on “Consentino Students to Be Eligible for College Seed Money

  1. Everything is a conspiracy.
    Everything is Democrats fault.
    The Mayor killed Jesus.
    Dempsey invented Ricketts.
    Liz Warren shot Lee Harvey.

    Duncan needs a tinfoil beanie.
    Broken records!

  2. Great. Subsidize even higher college costs.

    Dempsey and the rest of this states pols should be ashamed at what they have done to PUBLIC education affordability in this state. The returns of course are abysmal as college labor force participation rates continue to plummet.

    CONgress Members have voted not once, but twice (including Niki Tsongas) in the last decade to assure college affordability remains out of reach for many, while at the same time creating a generation of debt slaves.

    These politicians are preying on American ignorance, making them deceivers of the worst order.

    • My gosh, you’re right, it’s an ongoing conspiracy; best to leave our children uneducated and unexposed to any elements of higher learning other than what they can pick up from the tee-vee, comic books, the Internet and whatever conspiracy-laced half-truths they may overhear their parents mention.

      Thank you for exposing this, Duncan! Your new tinfoil beanie is in the mail.

      • Shouldn’t you spending time figuring out what excuse to use given the Haverhill water supply is contaminated or that you didn’t plow city streets during the biggest snow storm of the year?

        • Why would I give an excuse for those things? I’m not an elected official. You, however, seem to have all the answers, so I expect to see you running for office this fall. Live the power of your convictions, Jack, and I’m sure the impeccable logic and language skills you frequently demonstrate on here will sway the public to…ahhh, forget it, I can’t finish that sentence without laughing.

          Unfortunately you’ll have to run for city council as the dog officer in Haverhill is not an elected position.

          Now, you probably need to get the facts straight: the water wasn’t “contaminated”, it was under-treated for a whopping 10 minutes or so. Hardly a public health crisis.

          Also, the streets WERE plowed, but you appear to be one of those who complain when the streets are not instantly scraped down to bare pavement immediately after a major storm, and if the city DID in fact scrape the streets to bare pavement immediately after the storm you’d complain about the cost.

          MY street was plowed quite nicely, by the way.

    • I wonder why you never hear The Fake Indian, Liz Warren, ranting against the teachers at UMass who pull in $200,000 a year for teaching a couple of classes a week?

        • My point is she whines about “millionaires and billionaires” when they make their money in the private sector and, of course, on nasty Wall Street…..but when people are becoming millionaires as a result of ripping off students and families via public higher education she says nothing.

  3. Like all other social welfare programs, when these families find out that saving for their child’s education means their eligibility for a TOTALLY FREE education under FAFSA guidelines is reduced, no one will contribute a penny.

    You can bet this program includes financially paying for out of state students attending school in Massachusetts.

    There’s no doubt liberals provide for Anchor Babies born to parents criminally trespassing in this country illegally to participate. It’s insane liberals way of justifying not deporting the criminal parents.