St. Paul alleges contractor made off with nearly $1M meant for financial literacy lessons

St. Paul is trying to recoup $900,000 and damages from a contractor who allegedly blew deadlines, canceled meetings and has not yet delivered lesson plans to teach elementary schoolers about financial literacy, according to a federal lawsuit filed this fall.

The lessons were meant to be part of St. Paul’s CollegeBound program that started savings accounts for babies born in the city starting in 2020. The program was one of Mayor Melvin Carter’s most notable achievements.

The savings accounts are not affected, according to a spokesperson from Carter’s office, and St. Paul still hopes to move forward with the financial literacy lessons

This year’s kindergarten class was supposed to receive lessons, since those children were the first St. Paul-born babies to receive the savings accounts seeded with $50.

But according to the city’s lawsuit, the work has been set back a year because St. Paul has yet to receive the lesson plans and teaching materials from Maryland-based nonprofit BlackFem.

BlackFem denies delays and wrongdoing, according to court documents, and the nonprofit argues it does not owe the city $900,000.

In its 2023 tax filings, the most recent available, BlackFem reported just over $500,000 in revenue and declining assets.

According to the lawsuit, the St. Paul Office of Financial Empowerment started seeing delays almost immediately.

St. Paul was supposed to get the lesson plans in December 2024 and other teaching materials in March 2025, but none arrived, the suit said. Still, St. Paul paid a $500,000 invoice in September 2024 and another for $400,000 in April 2025.

Over the summer, St. Paul and BlackFem quibbled about whether the city would own the lesson plans. BlackFem also objected to the idea of St. Paul teachers altering the curriculum to suit their classroom’s needs.

The 10-year-old nonprofit argues the contract would not have transferred ownership of the lesson plans to the city because it was based on the group’s intellectual property, while St. Paul argues the contract lets the city use and adapt the plans as it sees fit.

In September, BlackFem’s attorney suggested in a letter the contract be terminated. The letter did not include an offer to refund any of the $900,000 paid to BlackFem, the complaint said.

St. Paul teachers were supposed to be trained on the lesson plans during an Oct. 2 professional development day, but BlackFem canceled the training on Sept. 30, citing the dispute.