Asset Building Program: Latest Articles

This month, as parents of college-age students sign promissory notes for student loans and watch tuition checks diminish their bank accounts, Congress is encouraging all parents to wake up and start planning. While National College Savings Month -- meant to spread awareness about the need to save for higher education -- has a laudable goal, promoting the importance of saving won't do much to help struggling families afford the cost of higher education.

Two critical questions exist for the prepaid industry. What will it take for prepaid cards to achieve widespread awareness and acceptance among a critical mass of consumers? When will prepaid users turn to the prepaid card as an ongoing financial tool? The prepaid industry has been working hard to identify which consumer segments are most likely to use the product, to develop product features that meet consumers’ financial needs, and to employ marketing strategies and distribution for wider and… more

In standard U.S. policy-speak, “poverty” is an income concept. The “poverty line” is an income measure, access to social programs is largely related to income, and when policymakers examine distributional effects of a policy, they turn to income quintiles.

Income, however, provides an incomplete picture of family well-being. Income measures a household’s flow of funds, but that flow can be interrupted. In his recent book High Wire, Peter Gosselin presents disturbing evidence that income volatility in the United States--measured by the percentage of households experiencing a 50-percent decline… more

Summer has arrived in Baltimore, and so has summer school -- bringing with it a chance for students who improve on their High School Assessment exams to pocket something more than academic success. A few months ago, Baltimore schools CEO Andres Alonso unveiled a controversial proposal to improve city schools: Pay students to perform. It's a simple idea that has generated quite a bit of controversy from purists who cringe at the thought of paying students to learn and from… more

With falling home prices, rising food and fuel costs and an unemployment rate well above the national average, the current economic downturn may push already vulnerable California families to the brink of financial destitution. Thousands of people may turn to welfare for support in the coming months. That's OK -- that's the purpose of temporary assistance. It's not as if this is the money-for-nothing welfare of the early 1990s; these folks are required to start looking for work the second… more