New Orleans to fund $1 million guaranteed income program for students

The city of New Orleans is planning to spend $1 million to fund a guaranteed basic income pilot program for 800 public high school students for three years. It will be funded by federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act.

Leatrice Dupre, press secretary for the mayor’s office, said the expansion may not enroll 800 students due to lack of funding.

“But the number of student participants will be statistically significant,” she said in an email to The Center Square.

The pilot program was on the agenda of the city's July 18 Budget/Audit/Board of Review Committee meeting.

The students eligible for the program would come from Rooted School, a public school for 9th through 12th grades that was started in 2014. It is located inside Southern University of New Orleans’ College of Education and Human Development.

The pilot program is an expansion of an earlier guaranteed income program for students that was a $50 a week to teenagers for 40 weeks that ran from 2022 to 2024. That initial program was done in two phases with 153 students in the first phase and 314 students in the second phase. The students came from New Orleans and Indianapolis.

Mark Quinn, board chair of Rooted School, didn't return an email seeking comment.