Illinois General Assembly Passes Children’s Savings Account Legislation
If Signed By Governor, Bipartisan Effort Will Make College Completion Four Times Likelier for Kids in Illinois
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 30, 2019
PRESS CONTACTS: Jenna Severson (o) 312-368-0310
SPRINGFIELD, IL – Yesterday the Illinois Senate passed legislation to create the country’s largest children’s savings account (CSA) program. If signed by Governor Pritzker, the program, run by the Illinois State Treasurer, would automatically deposit $50 into a college savings account for each child born or adopted in Illinois after January 1, 2021. In response to a candidate survey issued by Woodstock last year, then candidate Pritzker indicated his support for a CSA program.
Woodstock Institute has long supported the policy. Woodstock’s president, Dory Rand, served as a co-chair of the Illinois Children’s Savings Account Task Force created by the Illinois General Assembly in 2009. Dory Rand offered the following statement about the passage of the Children’s Higher Education Savings Accounts legislation (HB2237):
“Fostering early childhood development and expanding opportunities to obtain post-secondary education and training for all Illinois children through a Children’s Savings Account program is a dream come true. I saw the promise of these programs when I administered the first CSA program in Illinois from 2004 to 2007. Since then, a growing body of research has documented the positive impacts for kids and families of these programs.”
Read the full press release from Heartland Alliance. Learn more about the benefits from CSAs from our 2017 research report Building Brighter Futures.
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Woodstock Institute is a leading nonprofit research and policy organization in the areas of equitable lending and investments, wealth creation and preservation, and safe and affordable financial products and services. Woodstock Institute works locally and nationally to create a financial system in which lower-wealth persons and communities of color can safely borrow, save, and build wealth so that they can achieve economic security and community prosperity.