Arne Duncan Takes the Lead Promoting Saving for Students

In December we noted that the leaders of the Education Department, FDIC, and the National Credit Union Administration signed on for a partnership to “encourage schools, financial institutions, federal grantees and other stakeholders to work together to increase financial literacy, access to federally-insured deposit accounts and savings among students and families across the country.”

That sounds great, but how many of these things have we seen come and go with nary a whiff of activity? Well the partners here seem determined to prove that this one will be different.

Arne Duncan is out with a new video pushing educational institutions, banks and credit unions to get into the game of promoting financial access, education and savings for elementary and secondary students across the country. He specifically cites two projects that we’ve long been advocates for, Bank On and San Francisco’s Kindergarten-to-College initiative, as examples of home grown, local partnerships that can improve the financial futures of children and their families.

While the Administration didn’t promote savings proposals in their budget as much as we’d hoped, it’s encouraging to see that a recognition of the power of savings is still present and worth the time of senior administration officials. Here’s Secretary Duncan: