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Our friend Karen Harris from the in Illinois has a nice post up at detailing some new developments around Children’s Savings Accounts at the state and local level, including , and , and the role that Shriver and CFED have played in some of those efforts.

Here’s Karen on why this is so important:

Mississippi’s version of a CSA program uses its 529 college savings program platform. The State of Mississippi is offering 529 college savings accounts and seeding them with $50 in several early childhood development centers across the city of Jackson, Mississippi. So far 369 three-, four-, and five-year-olds are enrolled. The children will also receive financial education in the classroom, and their parents will be offered training from the curriculum to encourage them to invest in their child’s future. .

It’s good to get these updates, and to add these programs to the list of promising experiments going on around the country, in places like and . Of course, we favor a national solution, but efforts like these help the children who are targeted, their families as well as helping build the base of knowledge around CSAs.