In mid-March, I lost the car wash job I had held for three years.
Since then, as of April 25 some 20% of Minnesotans — 556,000 people — had applied for unemployment benefits, most because of the coronavirus pandemic. That suggests at least 10,000 high school students have lost their jobs (an estimated 17 percent of Minnesota’s 300,000 high school students work during the academic year). I recently learned that Minnesota bars high school students from receiving unemployment benefits. In March, the federal government approved a new unemployment benefits program to help those who don’t qualify for regular unemployment benefits, including high school students who are out of work. Minnesota should let out-of-work high school students receive this essential support during the covid-19 crisis.
Minnesota’s bar of high school student eligibility applies only to regular unemployment benefits, not those under the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. PUA is a time-limited emergency assistance program entirely funded by the federal government, intended to help those who are self-employed, part-time workers, those with limited work history and others not able to receive benefits “under State or Federal law.”
PUA rules clearly indicate that full-time high school students who are out-of-work are able to receive PUA benefits. Gov. Tim Walz and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Security should fully implement PUA benefits for out-of-work Minnesotans regardless of enrollment status.
The jobs we lost gave us and our families income we’ve depended on for living, housing, and future college expenses. I’ve been on my own since 13. When I was 7, my dad was imprisoned and later deported to Mexico. My mother was deported when I was 13, taking my 4-year-old brother. After a few months of homelessness, my aunt took me in. When she developed breast cancer and couldn’t work, I started working at a car wash at age 14, supporting my aunt and myself. My mother in Mexico developed breast cancer soon afterward, and I became responsible for her and my brother’s expenses. I’ve tried very hard since then to balance school, work, student leadership activities, learning from mentors and preparing for college. (You can learn the stories of other out-of-work students on our Don’tForgetUsCampaign! Facebook page.)
I’m blessed compared to many young people. My mother and aunt have been cancer-free for over a year. Last week, I began a paid internship at The Minneapolis Foundation, where I’m creating Bridgemakers, a mentorship-based leadership program for Twin Cities youth seeking to break cycles of poverty, violence and miseducation.
Like me, many Minnesota high school students don’t have parents who are eligible for unemployment benefits, because our parents are immigrants, incarcerated, deceased, chemically dependent, mentally ill or otherwise not present. Students were more likely to be employed in restaurants, retail and entertainment jobs that may be slow to return, and less likely to telework.
If nothing changes, out-of-work young people in Minnesota who would otherwise receive benefits will have a strong reason to drop out of high school. That wouldn’t be good for either them or Minnesota. Working students are taxpayers and economic contributors too. When we lose our jobs, we and our families also struggle with basic needs. Minnesota should not leave its youngest workers out of an already funded federal program intended to help high school students and many other Americans survive during this pandemic. We are all in this together.
Walter Cortina, 17, is a junior at the High School for Recording Arts in St. Paul, an intern at The Minneapolis Foundation, and founding director of Bridgemakers.
