College Accounts at Birth: State Efforts Raise New Hopes
Creating and seeding accounts for every newborn is found to have an impact on aspirations as well as savings.
Talasheia Dedmon enrolled her son Braylon in a college savings account through SEED for Oklahoma Kids, an effort to help a new generation climb the educational ladder and build assets. Credit.September Dawn Bottoms for The New York Times
April 27, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET
Braylon Dedmon was 3 days old when his mother, Talasheia, was offered $1,000 to open a college savings account in his name.
“I was like, ‘What?’” Ms. Dedmon recalled. Her skeptic’s antennae tingled. “I was a little scared.” Was this a scam?
Beyond Pandemicâs Upheaval, a Racial Wealth Gap Endures
Billions in aid has been dispensed, and the social safety net has been reinforced. Will there be more ambitious steps to address longtime inequities?
The heavy hand of a history studded by unfair housing, zoning and lending policies has prevented generations of Black families from gathering assets.Credit.Harold M. Lambert/Getty Images
April 9, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET
Not since Lyndon Baines Johnsonâs momentous civil rights and anti-poverty legislation has an American president so pointedly put racial and economic equity at the center of his agenda.
President Bidenâs multitrillion-dollar initiatives to rebuild infrastructure in neglected and segregated neighborhoods, increase wages for health care workers, expand the safety net and make pre-K and college more accessible are all shot through with attention to the particular economic disadvantages that face racial minorities. So were his sweeping pandemic relief bill
Multiple Authors Overview
Pulitzer Center grantee Richard Weiss and St. Louis resident Kim Daniel will discuss the impacts of systemic racism on
Wednesday,
2021, at
Weiss spokewithDaniel for the Pulitzer Center-supported series The 63106 Project, in which storytellers engage with families in St. Louis s most vulnerable neighborhoods to learn how they are coping during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This event is the first in a multi-part series presented by the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis in collaboration with interfaith partners. “The Great Divide: Race in Our Region” will consist of four events that investigate structural racism in St. Louis.
Future events in the series will be held March 10, April 14, and May 12, 2021.
Identifying The Most Financially Vulnerable Families
from the St Louis Fed
In late March, Congress authorized more than $2 trillion in relief for U.S. households and others affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the cash infusion helped millions of individuals, people with limited savings or wealth were more likely to suffer anyway, according to an
In the Balance article.
Lowell Ricketts, lead analyst for the St Louis Fed’s Center for Household Financial Stability, and Ray Boshara, the Center’s senior adviser and director, focused on reports of serious delinquency to pinpoint the families most (and least) at risk. (Serious delinquency refers to being at least two months behind on a loan obligation.)