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Lansing launches education savings program for children

Five dollar bill photo
F Delventhal
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Flickr Creative Commons

The two-year-old Lansing Financial Empowerment Center is launching a new program called “Lansing SAVE.” An automatic child savings account will be opened when enrolling in kindergarten in a Lansing public school. Current State talks with Lansing SAVE director Jayme King, and San Francisco Treasurer Jose Cisneros, who started a similar program there.

Some Lansing families have been enjoying more financial stability recently. That’s partly the result of program launched two years that created a Financial Empowerment Center in the capital city. Only five cities in the country received grants for the initiative, which came from Bloomberg Philanthropies. The idea was to provide free advice to residents experiencing problems related to credit, saving, debt, and banking.

The center’s newest program is called Lansing SAVE. It’s designed to help families start saving money for post secondary education while their children are very young, specifically, those entering Kindergarten in the fall.

Current State talks with Lansing SAVE is director Jayme King and Jose Cisneros, the Treasurer for the city and county of San Francisco. He’s the founder of a similar savings program there.

Scott Pohl is a general assignment news reporter and produces news features and interviews. He is also an alternate local host on NPR's "Morning Edition."
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