Table of Contents
- Fueling the Fight for Net Neutrality
- Embracing Ranked-Choice Voting as a Pathway to Pluralism
- Measuring U.S. Drone Use and Misuse
- Fulfilling the Promise of Child Savings Accounts
- Linking the Individual Mandate and Social Responsibility
- Tracking Terrorism in the United States
- Early Education Doesn't End at Pre-K
- Making Higher Education Outcomes Transparent
- Redefining Care Policy
- Using TV "White Spaces" to Create Equitable Internet Access
- Investing in America's Future Thinkers
- Proposing the Public Option
- Creating a Public Interest Technology Sector
- Building a New Practice of Public Problem-Solving
- Expanding Access to High School-Age Youth for High-Quality Apprenticeship Opportunities
- Engaging North Korea
- A Universal 401(k) Plan
- Measuring the Internet for Everyone
- Rethinking Economic Policy
- Documenting the Long Wars
- Ranking Digital Rights
- Future Tense
- Using Fiction to Make Policy More鈥ealistic
- Pop-Up Magazine
- Developing an MA in Global Security
- Helping Communities Deploy Mesh Networks
- Partnering with Universities
Fulfilling the Promise of Child Savings Accounts
Idea
Economic inequality and the unequal distribution of opportunity have long been concerns for scholars at 国产视频. As early as 2003, 国产视频鈥檚 Ray Boshara articulated a vision to combat these social ills by designing a federal, legislative plan for universal children鈥檚 savings accounts, or CSAs.
Incubation
Built on pioneering scholarship from the world of academia, 国产视频鈥檚 plan for universal CSAs was designed to boost opportunity by democratizing the ownership of capital and empowering rising generations of Americans to make productive investments in their future. This legislative ambition was first introduced in 2004 as a piece of bipartisan legislation called the ASPIRE Act. The proposal called for opening an account for each child born in the United States, and for each account to be seeded with a $500 deposit, allowed to grow tax-free. Contributions to the account were to be encouraged by the prospect of tax-free growth and matching contributions for children from families with lower incomes and fewer resources, and the accumulated funds in the accounts were dedicated for key life events related to maximizing opportunity鈥攖hings like education after high school, homeownership, and retirement.
Impact
In the 15 years since its introduction, the ASPIRE Act has continued to inspire new iterations of the same idea and has also helped to spark a movement that is making CSAs a reality鈥攎ore than 50 CSA programs are now running nationally, serving nearly 400,000 children in more than 30 states.