New York City is making a historic investment in the future of its children. Starting this fall, public-school kindergarteners in the Big Apple will receive NYC Scholarship Accounts seeded with $1,000.
The major new investment builds on ideas first tested through research by the Center for Social Development (CSD) at Washington University in St. Louis that has shaped the field of child asset building.
Announced on June 30 by Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin, the move dramatically raises the opening balance for participating children and deepens the city’s bet on a simple but far-reaching idea with roots at the CSD: giving children assets early can widen educational and economic opportunity long before they transition to education beyond high school.
“This is a significant step forward for children’s asset building and for public policy grounded in evidence,” said Michael Sherraden, the George Warren Brown Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis and founder and co-director of CSD.
“New York City is building on a policy model tested in SEED OK, and it is doing so for a very good reason: Automatic, inclusive asset-building systems can be both effective and sustainable,” Sherraden added. “In addition, New York City is showing that child asset-building policy spurs additional public and private funding.”
For more on how CSD’s reasearch influenced the new fund in New York, visit https://csd.wustl.edu/kids-rise-expands/