Center on Assets, Education, and Inclusion

Child Development Accounts (CDAs)—also called Child Savings Accounts (CSAs)—provide assets and encourage saving and asset building for children. (See the accompanying document, The Case for a Nationwide Child Development Account Policy.) An efficient, trusted, and sustainable system for delivering CDAs is already being implemented in some states. A nationwide policy would require federal funding and changes in policy and practice to deliver CDAs for all children with a seed deposit as early as birth.

Research shows that CDAs have positive effects on asset building and healthy child and family development, with greater effects for people of color and low-income households. Asset building over time is the key to these results. Positive effects for children and families occur even before the money is spent for education.

Investing in children is fundamental for families, communities, and the U.S. economy. Child Development Accounts (CDAs), also called Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs), offer a proven and efficient model for investing in all children.

Education is one of the largest investments America makes in reducing poverty and promoting economic mobility. From this perspective, education is perceived by many as a long-term strategy for achieving individual, family, and intergenerational prosperity; a tool for increasing overall productivity; and an engine of economic growth on which our collective fortunes depend. However, like poverty policies in America, education policies have largely focused on providing children with enough financial aid to survive, not enough to thrive. This brief will argue that to deliver on the promise of money, we posit that a better notion of free is to provide low-income and underserved students with targeted ongoing deposits into a Children’s Savings Account from an early age. Further, we should consider integrating this long-term strategy with a long-term education investment, like College Promise (frequently referred to as “free college”) programs, to reverse this damaging trend, build a college going culture within families and their communities, and remove economic barriers to higher education and adult success.

We should not lose sight of moments in our collective history when we, as a country, have dared to dream and, as a result, were able to leap forward. The race to the moon was just such a moment, when we were “pushed” by the Soviet Union’s early advantage in the “space race” to unshackle ourselves from our limited imagination and as a result developed new technology to explore space. The U.S. foster care system needs a similar push to move away from an exclusive focus on survival policies for foster care youth and move toward including an asset-empowered agenda that can provide youth in foster care with the opportunity to thrive. This report looks at adapting CSAs to work better for Foster Care Youth.

At its inception, the Harold Alfond College Challenge (HACC) offered a $500 grant to every Maine resident infant for whom a NextGen account was opened by the baby’s first birthday. Enrollment involved a two-step process, including an addendum to the NextGen application, required in order to accept the Alfond Grant. While the money for the $500 HACC grants comes entirely from the Harold Alfond Foundation (a private family foundation) and is granted initially to the Alfond Scholarship Foundation (a 501(c)3 nonprofit) before being invested for eligible Maine babies, the state is an important partner, providing the delivery system of the 529 college savings plan (NextGen), matching and auto-funding incentive grants, and data-sharing. NextGen accountholders can get a 50% match on their contributions, automatically deposited for qualifying contributions, up to a maximum annual match of $300, with no lifetime limit or income threshold1. In addition, NextGen accounts set up with automatic deposits are eligible for a one-time additional $100 match from Finance Authority of Maine (FAME). Accountholders who make contributions to NextGen accounts may also benefit from tax advantages associated with 529s.

Children’s savings accounts (CSAs) seek to build assets for children to use for long-term investments such as college or other postsecondary education.  Although CSAs are administered through financial institutions such as banks or state 529 college savings plans, CSAs are more than just accounts. They include features such as initial deposits and savings matches to make saving easier and more successful, particularly for families disadvantaged by low incomes and/or other obstacles.

Promise Indiana is a state-supported and community-driven Children Savings Account intervention designed to equip young children and their families with the financial resources, college-bound identities, community support, and savings behaviors associated with positive educational outcomes. In addition to facilitated opening of a CollegeChoice 529 college savings plan account, children receive a $25 initial seed deposit and, if they contribute or raise $25, up to $100 in additional match.

New Mexico’s Prosperity Kids Children’s Savings Account (CSA) program provides incentives, financial education, and peer support to encourage participants, most of whom are relatively low-income Latino families, to save for their children’s futures. Nonprofit Prosperity Works leverages social networks and community partnerships in the Albuquerque, New Mexico area to recruit accountholders. While the particular features are somewhat unique, Prosperity Kids evidences the hallmarks of Children’s Savings Account policy: initial seed deposits, facilitated or universal account opening, savings incentives, and long-term asset ownership2. Those who open Prosperity Kids CSAs receive a $100 initial deposit and up to $200 in a 1:1 match for their savings per year, over ten years.3 Parents may also earn benchmark deposits for completing activities associated with child development and academic achievement. As is the case in many CSA programs, these incentives are financed with a mix of philanthropic and public dollars. Prosperity Kids accounts are custodial, held by Prosperity Works until used for postsecondary education or, when the child turns 23, for ‘transition to a stable adulthood’, such as homeownership or entrepreneurship.

This study explores the relationship between exposure to a community-based Children’s Savings Account program and parents’ educational expectations for their children. Generally, quantitative results suggest that parents are more likely to expect their elementary-school children to attend college if they have a 529 account. While for high-income parents, just being exposed to the Promise Indiana campaign was more closely related to parents’ expectations than actually having a 529 account, overall, exposure is correlated most strongly with parents’ educational expectations when combined with having an account. Furthermore, having an account is even more important among low-income families than exposure alone. Qualitative findings further explore parents’ experiences in Promise Indiana and suggest that most have formed college-saver identities.

In a time when wealth inequality increasingly threatens the U.S.—our sense of fairness and possibility, the fabric of our shared democracy, and the institutions that are supposed to undergird our economic opportunities--and when these anxieties are voiced particularly acutely by students who contemplate their own futures and question the ability of higher education to act as an equalizer in society, the discussion around student debt has grown stale. These conversations, usually consisting of the same few voices, echo with researchers investigating questions that all too often seek to maintain the status quo rather than challenge it and that seem, to a public plagued with disillusionment that borders on panic, divorced from their lived experiences. Within these confines, proposed solutions tend to mostly comprise tweaks around the margins (e.g., income-based repayment modification), rather than fundamental reconsiderations of how to finance higher education in a way that will simultaneously strengthen the return on a degree, improve educational outcomes such as attainment, and reduce wealth inequality. In this brief, I seek to provide a fresh look at what America gets from student loans. This begins with shifting the conversation from talking about whether or not college pays off for students who have to borrow to shining a bright light on the equity of having to pay for college with student loans. I do this by bringing together bodies of evidence that reveal: (a) the amount of wealth your family has matters for whether you will attend and complete college, (b) low-income and minority students receive less of a return on a degree than their wealthier, white counterparts, and (c) college goers—including those who graduate—with debt have less wealth than their peers without debt. This not only has implications for borrowers but for their children who grow up with less wealth and who will then be less able to use education to climb the economic ladder themselves. Given this, I conclude that a financial aid system for the 21st Century must not only help students pay for college but also help them build assets. Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs) work on many fronts, from early preparation to college access to completion and then post-college financial outcomes, to address concerns about the differential return on a degree and wealth inequality. However, in order to make CSAs a true tool for fighting wealth inequality, they must be combined with a significant wealth transfer. Possibilities for this wealth transfer might include such approaches as augmenting existing scholarship or grant programs, such as the Pell Grant program, with opportunities for early-commitment asset building or diverting funds now going to poorly-targeted tax subsidies. It has been estimated that CSAs with a wealth transfer could reduce the racial wealth gap in America by 20% to 80%, depending on participation and the size of the investment in these accounts. This pivot to asset-based financial aid could be the centerpiece of a new economic mobility system that makes good on the promise made to American children, that through their own effort and ability in school they can achieve the American Dream.

Higher education funding policy rests on the assumption that college graduates enjoy equal opportunities for economic mobility regardless of how they finance their education. To test this assumption, this study compares the time it takes to move up the economic ladder for young adults who acquired student debt and those who did not. Findings reveal that college graduates who acquired student debt take longer to reach the midpoint of the net worth distribution than college graduates who financed their education without student debt. In fact, an additional $10,000 of student debt - only one third of the average amount college students acquire - is associated with a 26% decrease in the rate of achieving median net worth. Even after controlling for key differences, acquiring the relatively small amount of $10,000 in student loans is still associated with an 18% decrease in the rate of achieving median net worth. This study also finds some evidence that student debt is associated with a slower rate of reaching median income. An additional $10,000 in student loans is associated with a 9% decrease in the rate of achieving median income, although these differences do not emerge until about age 35. These findings suggest that over the course of a college graduate’s lifetime, those who acquired student debt enjoy fewer opportunities to move up the economic ladder than their counterparts without student loan debt. Findings underscore the inequity created by the current U.S. system of financing higher education.

This study, generously funded by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, examined the financial health and capability of lower-income Millennial young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 (annual incomes < $25,000; N = 2,578) from the 2012 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS). In particular, this study explored how varying combinations of financial education and financial inclusion related to Millennials' financial behaviors, like saving for emergencies, using alternative financial service providers, and carrying debt. The 2012 NFCS is one of the few data sets with extensive questions about financial behaviors. The results identifying significant differences in the data were based on multiply imputed and propensity score weighted (average treatment effect for the treated; ATT) regression analyses of young adults in the sample.

This study examines the extent of emergent, outstanding credit card debt among young adult college students and investigates whether any associations exist between the characteristics of the communities in which these students grew up or lived and their credit card debt. Using data (N = 748) from a longitudinal survey and merging community-level characteristics measured at the zip code level, we confirmed that a community’s unemployment rate, average total debt, average credit score, and number of bank branch offices were associated with a young adult college student’s acquisition and accumulation of credit card debt. Community-level characteristics had the strongest associations with credit card debt even after controlling for individual characteristics such as a young adult college student’s race, GPA, and financial independence and familial characteristics such as their parents’ income and whether their parents discussed financial matters like establishing credit. The findings from this research may help to understand how communities can be better capacitated to support the financial goals of their residents.

There is concern that the increasing accessibility of alternative financial services in communities across the US is risking individuals' financial health by increasing their use of these high-cost services, potentially trapping them into carrying burdensome debt, damaging their credit scores, or delaying payments on rent or utilities. This study uses restricted-access, zip code data from a nationally representative sample of nearly 24,000 adult individuals to examine whether the concentration of alternative financial services within communities relates to individuals’ use of these services. Generally, the assumption holds that increased access is associated with increased use; however, there are differences in how individuals use alternative financial services based on their annual household income. Modest and highest income individuals are more likely to use these services when they live in communities with higher concentrations of alternative financial services. For lowest income individuals, higher concentrations are associated with their more frequent or chronic use of these services. Local, state, and national policies are needed to provide safe and affordable financial services within communities and to regulate the expanding alternative financial services industry.

This study, generously funded by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, examined the financial health and capability of Millennial young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 (N = 6,865) from the 2012 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS). In particular, this study explored how varying combinations of financial education and financial inclusion related to Millennials' financial behaviors, like saving for emergencies, using alter-native financial service providers, and carrying debt. The 2012 NFCS is one of the few data sets with extensive questions about financial behaviors. The results identifying significant differences in the data were based on multiply imputed and propensity score weighted (average treatment effect for the treated; ATT) regression analyses of young adults in the sample

Research suggests that Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs) may be capable of charting improved opportunities for children’s success through the mechanisms of account ownership and transformative asset accumulation. Fueled in large part by evidence of significant effects on children’s educational attainment and economic well-being, the CSA field has experienced rapid growth, with programs and policies proliferating around the country. The accounts that form the core intervention within these CSA initiatives are delivered through two principal delivery systems: traditional depository institutions (banks and credit unions), relied on primarily by local and community-based efforts, and state-sponsored 529 college saving plans, the vehicle of choice for most state-level CSAs. At this point in the CSA trajectory, individual programs and the field as a whole face critical questions about the best ways to build CSAs, in order to maximize their potential for potent effects while facilitating sustainable replication.

This paper, jointly produced by the Center on Assets, Education, and Inclusion (AEDI) at the University of Kansas and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, was informed by a roundtable on CSA delivery systems, held at the Boston Fed in December 2014. It describes the design, key features, and respective challenges of each principal delivery system. Assessed in light of the CSA field’s guiding principles for delivery system design (universal and automatic enrollment, national footprint, cultivation of a saver identity, asset-building, administrative efficiency, and adequate consumer protection), these models have distinct advantages and limitations. This paper attempts to contribute to the critical task of building the knowledge base needed to help children’s savings programs begin to weigh the pros and cons of each of these existing delivery systems.

This study, generously funded by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, examined the financial health and capability of Millennial young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 (N = 6,865) from the 2012 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS). In particular, this study explored how varying combinations of financial education and financial inclusion related to Millennials' financial behaviors, like saving for emergencies, using alternative financial service providers, and carrying debt. The 2012 NFCS is one of the few data sets with extensive questions about financial behaviors. The results identifying significant differences in the data were based on multiply imputed and propensity score weighted (average treatment effect for the treated; ATT) regression analyses of young adults in the sample.

The effects of different types of debt can vary widely: some debt is considered productive by advancing young adult households' financial health while other debt can be unproductive, pushing their financial health out of reach. A savings account may help young adult households reduce their reliance on unproductive debt and increase their access to productive debt that can facilitate wealth building and economic mobility. This study tests the association between a savings account and debt in the lives American young adults during periods of macroeconomic stability and decline. Owning a savings account in 1996 is associated with a 14% decrease ($844) in young adult households’ accumulated unsecured debt, while closing an account in 2008 is associated with a 12% increase ($1,320) in this type of debt. Overall, a savings account may help young adults “invest in their debt” by entering better, healthier credit markets and protecting them from riskier ones—especially during bad economic times. Policy interventions are needed that increase access to savings accounts and help young adult households to use debt productively.

The current young adult generation is expected to lead a resurgence in entrepreneurial activities in the United States and these activities are expected to drive economic growth in the coming years. However, young adults may find it difficult to fulfill the expectations of becoming entrepreneurs and drivers of economic growth. This is because entrepreneurial opportunities are typically reserved for the wealthiest and most privileged Americans who have the financial resources needed to invest in starting small businesses, such as savings and access to credit. In contrast, young adults have not had much time to save money, build credit, or accumulate wealth. Moreover, given historic wealth inequalities rooted in racism and discrimination, young adults from racial and ethnic minority groups may be left out of the entrepreneurial resurgence and its economic benefits. This study analyzes nationally representative, longitudinal data to addresses the questions of whether young adults' wealth can support their entrepreneurial activities by becoming self-employed and whether black and Latino/a young adults leverage their wealth differently to support their entrepreneurial activities. Generally, the probability of being selfemployed;increases for all young adults as they accumulate wealth. However, wealth may play an outsized role in the self-employment of black and Latino/a young adults. Black and Latino/a young adults may not be able to rely on taking out a small loan at a bank or credit union in order to open their business; instead, they may be forced to use their own limited wealth for pursuing entrepreneurship. Policies are needed that support wealth accumulation (particularly for racial and ethnic minorities), remove discriminatory lending practices, and provide young entrepreneurs with access to credit.

Child Development Accounts (CDAs)—specially designed accounts opened in children’s own names—are a preventive, economic intervention that can complement investments made by existing early childhood interventions and advance their mission of helping children reach their full potential. Poverty is an inhibitor of children’s opportunities for educational and economic advancement. Federal, state, and local governments have dedicated substantial resources to mitigating the effects of poverty. CDAs are a complementary strategy with great potential but one that is underutilized. The positive outcomes of CDA ownership and development can be supported by appropriate policy design and by providing appropriate, intentional preparation to children about their CDAs.

Related items: Examining The Canadian Education Savings Program and Its Implications for U.S. Child Savings Accounts (CSA) Policy Webinar: Canadian Savings Education Report

By giving students and families a clear strategy for how to overcome cost barriers, college savings increase the likelihood of enrollment. The prospect of significant borrowing, on the other hand, does little to orient students towards college as a likely part of their futures.

Even small levels of savings make enrollment more likely. Specifically, 45% of low or moderate-income students with no account, 71% with more than $1 of school savings, and 72% of students with school savings of $500+ enroll in college.

On the longer-term challenge of equipping students to succeed, CSAs also show promise, largely through reinforcing a college-saver identity (expects to graduate and sees savings as a strategy for paying for college) that increases engagement and builds expectations.

Conversely, going through school without assets can compromise achievement. Spells of asset poverty prior to age 11 have a particularly negative effect on academic achievement.

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The price of higher education has increased dramatically in recent decades as higher education financing has shifted from a collectively funded public good to reliance on individual and family contributions. This cost burden has implications for education’s ability to serve as an equalizing force in the U.S., but asset-based financial aid models may have the potential to transform our financial aid system. While high student loan debt may hinder college completion and even serve as a deterrent to enrollment among some disadvantaged students, promoting asset development may reduce the need for loans and improve educational outcomes. Policies that combine smaller student loans with asset-based approaches could create a financial-aid model that builds college readiness among low-income students, improves their access to college, and increases their chances of success in higher education and of financial security post-graduation.

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Institutional Facilitation and CSA Effects CSAs As An Early Commitment Financial Aid Strategy From Disadvantaged Student to College Graduates: The Role of CSAs How CSAs Facilitate Saving and Asset Accumulation Designing for Success Investing In Our Future Children’s Savings Accounts and a 21st Century Financial Aid System Executive Summary

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Successfully advancing CSA policy will require analyzing the political context so that proposals can take advantage of windows of opportunity, framing CSAs as congruent with prevailing values, and crafting CSAs such that they are positioned as effective solutions to important policy problems. To this end, research documenting the concerning effects of the overreliance of student debt as a mechanism through which to finance college, as well as the potential of asset based approaches to potentially reduce high-dollar debt and improve educational outcomes, is perhaps one of the most significant developments towards national CSA policy. CSAs can be clearly understood to have potential to solve one of our most pressing problems: how to bring college affordability to enough prepared students to increase educational attainment without compromising future economic security—for the nation or for individual students. This framing of CSAs has practical fiscal implications, too; if asset-based approaches to financing higher education are seen as ways to reduce dependence on debt-heavy ones, then the ‘net cost’ might be understood to be smaller, particularly in light of the potentially negative long-term financial effects of outstanding student loans.

Related items: Briefs:

From a Debt-Dependent to an Asset-Based Financial Aid Model Institutional Facilitation and CSA Effects CSAs As An Early Commitment Financial Aid Strategy From Disadvantaged Student to College Graduates: The Role of CSAs How CSAs Facilitate Saving and Asset Accumulation Designing for Success Investing In Our Future Executive Summary

Building Expectations, Delivering Results: Asset-Based Financial Aid and The Future of Higher Education Infographics

College Savings Accounts: More Degrees, Less Debt The Role of Institutional Facilitation in Academic Success Reports

Examining The Canadian Education Savings Program and Its Implications for U.S. Child Savings Accounts (CSA) Policy

When thinking about the role CSAs may play in increasing college enrollment and completion, we need a broader frame than just helping children pay for college. Emerging research linking assets with academic achievement suggests that CSAs may be a valuable tool for addressing long-term barriers to closing the attainment gap—a potentially greater challenge in improving outcomes and equity. As early commitment financial aid strategies, CSAs may help to shape children’s college expectations, thereby impacting parents’ investments in their children’s education and potentially mitigating some of the effects of poverty on educational attainment. The potential for cumulative effects starting in early childhood and CSAs’ potential impact on post-college outcomes bolster the argument for including CSAs in the financial aid system and considering the role of timing in influencing financial aid efficacy.

Related items: Briefs:

From a Debt-Dependent to an Asset-Based Financial Aid Model Institutional Facilitation and CSA Effects From Disadvantaged Student to College Graduates: The Role of CSAs How CSAs Facilitate Saving and Asset Accumulation Designing for Success Investing In Our Future Children’s Savings Accounts and a 21st Century Financial Aid System Executive Summary

Building Expectations, Delivering Results: Asset-Based Financial Aid and The Future of Higher Education Infographics

College Savings Accounts: More Degrees, Less Debt The Role of Institutional Facilitation in Academic Success Reports

Examining The Canadian Education Savings Program and Its Implications for U.S. Child Savings Accounts (CSA) Policy