WASHINGTON, D.C. – College savings accounts like the ones the Obama administration proposed Thursday represent a “new formula for reaching the American dream,” a leading scholar in the field of children’s savings and college success said.
“The savings accounts “do not teach children to sit at home as some might want to suggest,” said Dr. William Elliott III, assistant professor at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare. “They teach children that effort mixed with societal resources is the new formula for reaching the American dream.”
Through the savings accounts proposed by the Obama administration, 10,000 high school freshmen participating in GEAR UP -– a federal program that helps low-income students prepare for college — will be given $200 in seed money to start the account, which will be opened by their respective states. The federal government will then match up to $10 per month for four years, enabling the accounts to total $1,160 by the time the students graduate from high school.
Elliott said it’s not the amount of money in the accounts that matters, but rather how the act of saving money for college creates a certain college-going mindset.
“There does seem to be an effect from just owning an account and what people think that will do for them in the future,” Elliott said in response to an observer who noted that $1,100 could hardly purchase a few credit hours in today’s higher education environment.
Elliott said the bigger idea is to get students to invest in their future by showing them that society is willing to invest in them.
“The meta-message is: you pay your share, we will pay our share,” Elliott said. “It is the recognition by the individuals and society that each must invest if either is to be successful.”
