Center on Assets, Education, and Inclusion

Most people do not dream of going to college and becoming rich; that is, higher education is, for most, a path to the American Dream of middle-class financial security and upward mobility, not a perceived ticket to great riches. Generally, when people dream of being rich, they think of being a professional athlete, an actor, a singer, or entrepreneur, or winning the lottery. People may dream of getting rich, but it is not this illusion of quick fortune that animates individual actions nor characterizes the American ideal. Instead, Americans expect and work toward the opportunity to become middle-class through education, and it is this promise that underscores our vision of ourselves and our presumed ‘contract’ with the institutions that govern U.S. society. In recognition of the role that educational attainment plays in opening the door to this archetypal middle-class ideal, U.S. policy decided some time ago that children’s work would be school work. Children and their parents believe that the reward for innate intellectual ability and expended academic effort will be a chance to reach, not ease and opulence, but security and upward progress. U.S. policy affirms that education is the primary path for achieving the American Dream. Therefore, quick climbs from rags to riches are presumed to be quixotic, fleeting, and not necessarily even desirable. In contrast, the denial of a fair shot to enter and stay in the middle class through education imperils the foundation on which our collective identity rests and threatens to rewrite the American narrative of ‘success’ through effort and ability, mediated through attainment of education.

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Amidst concerns about percentages of households that remain unbanked or underbanked, policy endeavors have emerged to promote financial inclusion by making financial products such as savings accounts readily available. While these endeavors have primarily concentrated on households, young people may be the front lines of financial inclusion because they may be more likely to be banked in young adulthood and beyond when they start off with savings accounts earlier in life. This article addresses young people's financial inclusion by comprehensively reviewing 60 research studies on young people's savings, discussing the role of the family in young people's financial inclusion, discussing financial inclusion from an institutional perspective, presenting policy implications, and identifying gaps in knowledge and opportunities for research. Policies that open savings accounts for young people early in life may be a promising strategy for extending financial inclusion and preventing unbanked or underbanked status later in life.

Child Development Accounts (CDA) aim to open savings accounts in childhood as a way to lay a foundation for building assets in young adulthood and beyond. Mainstream banks may be key partners in opening the accounts in which children can build assets. While children may have limited savings to invest initially, they may increasingly invest over time by accumulating assets and debts through mainstream banks. Mainstream banks may benefit from children's increasing investments. This paper uses propensity score weighted, longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and its supplements to examine savings, assets, debt, and net worth accumulation of young adults and whether or not they accumulate more when they have savings accounts as children. Young adults accumulate a median of $1000 in savings accounts, $4600 in total assets, $965 in debt (excluding student loans), and $4000 in net worth (excluding student loans). Young adults accumulate more savings and total assets when they have savings accounts as children. They accumulate less debt and more net worth when their households accumulate high net worth.

According to Dr. Thomas Shapiro, the American dream “is the promise that those who work equally hard will reap roughly equal rewards” (Shapiro, 2004, p. 87). Higher education is widely regarded as a vehicle for sustaining this dream. This belief in the potential of education to act as an equalizer is supported by research, which consistently shows that a person who attains a four-year college degree earns more than a person who does not attain a four-year degree. Indeed, there is considerable evidence that educational achievement is the primary way that Americans born in poverty may leave it. Stories of those who escape poverty through education serve to support a reassuring narrative: providing access to higher education is all that is needed to keep the American dream vibrant.

There have always been holes in this vision of American success, but today more than ever, higher education’s role as a force for equity has deteriorated, such that college may serve more to perpetuate the status quo than to create ladders of opportunity. Tracing and naming the factors that contribute to the erosion of higher education’s equalizing role is an essential step in reinvigorating the American dream. Uncovering those factors begins with an honest conversation about student debt.

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This special issue of Economics of Education Review explores the role of savings and asset holding in post-secondary educational achievement. Most college success research has focused on income rather than assets as a predictor, and most college financing policy has focused on tuition support and educational debt, rather than asset accumulation. Nevertheless, there is compelling evidence that household asset holdings, especially savings for education, may have a pronounced positive influence, independent from income, in post-secondary educational success. Moreover, the fundamental reality is that savings plays a role, even though sometimes small, in college financing for most households. For these empirical and practical reasons, it may be important to pay greater attention to savings and asset holding for education in the future than we have in the past. The articles in this volume contribute empirical evidence, theoretical understanding, and potential policy directions regarding saving, asset holding, and educational achievement.

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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American society reflects considerable class immobility, much of which is due to the wide gap in college completion rates between advantaged and disadvantaged groups of students. In the introduction we discuss the factors that cause unequal college completion rates, introduce assets as an explanation stratification scholars often ignore, and then outline the remainder of this report.

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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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The Biannual Report on the Assets and Education Field, Building Expectations, Delivering Results, brings together a wide body of research to demonstrate the potential that CSAs have for transforming the way that students pay for, and prepare for, college. By changing the timing of aid delivery and strengthening household finances in the years leading up to college, an asset-based financial aid system need not cost more than our current system, either. This transformation could, in turn, restore the promise of economic mobility for a generation of talented but disadvantaged young people.

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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.

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A central hypothesis of Child Development Accounts (CDA) suggests that savings accounts in childhood lay a foundation for connecting to mainstream banking institutions and diversifying asset portfolios in young adulthood and beyond. While children may have limited savings to invest initially, they are financial actors who may increasingly invest money into different types of savings products over time. This paper uses propensity score weighted, longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and its supplements to examine the types of financial and nonfinancial assets owned by young adults and whether or not they are more likely to own these assets when they have savings accounts as children. The most commonly owned assets in young adulthood included savings accounts (89%), vehicles (54%) and credit cards (51%). Smaller percentages owned stocks (9%), bonds (6%), and homes (8%). On average, young adults owned two to three different assets. Having savings accounts in childhood was associated with being two times more likely to own savings accounts, two times more likely to own credit cards, and four times more likely to own stocks in young adulthood, compared to not having savings accounts in childhood. Young adults' ownership of more total financial assets was also associated with having savings accounts in childhood. Findings provide some supporting evidence of demand for children's savings accounts. Policy endeavors that remove barriers to account ownership may be advantageous for children and mainstream banks.

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.

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In the last few decades, children's savings accounts (CSAs) have emerged as a strategy for preparing children for their educational and financial futures, especially for those from low- to moderate-income households. This means a savings account is opened early in life and any accumulated savings can be used toward children's future expenses like college tuition or small business entrepreneurship. One question regarding CSA design is whether ownership over accounts should reside with children or parents. In other words, do children benefit educationally and financially when CSAs are in their names, or is it sufficient for parents to save on their children's behalf? This brief presents findings of the effects on children's financial futures when savings accounts are opened in their names. Findings validate the design of many existing CSAs and point to the need to reexamine policies that may discourage families from establishing accounts in children’s names.

CSAs should include every child of a given age—ideally, at birth, although there are certainly reasons to tie additional incentives to accomplishment of specific academic or life milestones. Including everyone in CSAs underscores the stake we all have in each other’s prosperity, which is particularly true when it comes to global competitiveness and the educational outcomes CSAs can deliver. Universality also means inclusiveness, or meaningful access to asset accumulation by low-income individuals who otherwise may not have truly equitable opportunities.1 This speaks to the need for features such as automatic enrollment (opt-out), concerted outreach and education strategies, and special incentives for lower-income households, in order to avoid a ‘universal’ CDA policy turning into another asset development investment that disproportionately benefits those already advantaged.

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The federally funded Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program (GEAR UP) is one of the most widely known U.S. programs which attempts to increase college enrollment and completion rates among disadvantaged students. GEAR UP has three main aims specifically targeted toward disadvantaged students historically underrepresented in higher education: (1) to increase academic performance and preparation for higher education, (2) to increase the rates of high school graduation and participation in higher education, and (3) to increase students’ and families’ knowledge of higher education options, including academic preparation and financing.

In 2011, an invitational priority was announced by the Department of Education (DOE) that encouraged grant applicants to include financial access and Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs) in their programming for students and their families. In a September press release, DOE announced 66 new GEAR UP grantees from the 2011 application cycle. Nineteen grantees were state entities and 47 were community-education partnerships.

In 2012, researchers from the Assets and Education Initiative (AEDI) at the University of Kansas launched a multi-method evaluation of 2011 GEAR UP grantees who accepted the invitational priority. AEDI combed through the GEAR UP applications and identified 33 grantees that explicitly stated in their abstracts the intention to open CSAs and/or teach financial education to students and their families. Among these 33 grantees, 25 programs completed AEDI’s initial survey. AEDI selected five programs to participate in a follow-up survey and in-depth interviews and focus groups during on-site visits. The study aimed to answer four primary research questions: (1) How well prepared do GEAR UP programs perceive themselves to be for planning and implementing CSAs? (2) What steps have GEAR UP programs taken to plan and implement CSAs? (3) What obstacles have GEAR UP programs encountered? and (4) What strategies have GEAR UP programs used to overcome obstacles that they encountered?