Sen Cory Booker’s idea to help kids get out of poverty

NationalTitles18

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I would give it consideration IF it went to a private account with the same restrictions on withdrawal but over which the government had no other ownership or control.

Without a safeguard against government bamboozling like the Alabama tuition deal a few years back I would give it an absolute "No".
 
I would give it consideration IF it went to a private account with the same restrictions on withdrawal but over which the government had no other ownership or control.

Without a safeguard against government bamboozling like the Alabama tuition deal a few years back I would give it an absolute "No".
Yeah, that’s not going to happen.
 

jthomas666

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I would give it consideration IF it went to a private account with the same restrictions on withdrawal but over which the government had no other ownership or control.
Without a safeguard against government bamboozling like the Alabama tuition deal a few years back I would give it an absolute "No"
You mean like the PACT Program, which Kay Ivey ran into the ground and then Bentley reneged on his promise to make sure it was fully funded?

Yeah, I'm still ....ed about it.


But Booker's idea is an interesting one-- my main concern is OK, you're giving them this nest egg--now we need to give them a decent education so they know how to use it.

It all comes back to education, guys.
 

NationalTitles18

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You mean like the PACT Program, which Kay Ivey ran into the ground and then Bentley reneged on his promise to make sure it was fully funded?

Yeah, I'm still ....ed about it.


But Booker's idea is an interesting one-- my main concern is OK, you're giving them this nest egg--now we need to give them a decent education so they know how to use it.

It all comes back to education, guys.
I agree with you, beginning with the education on broken promises.
 

rjtide

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You mean like the PACT Program, which Kay Ivey ran into the ground and then Bentley reneged on his promise to make sure it was fully funded?

Yeah, I'm still ....ed about it.


But Booker's idea is an interesting one-- my main concern is OK, you're giving them this nest egg--now we need to give them a decent education so they know how to use it.

It all comes back to education, guys.
I agree. Access to higher education is key.....but I contend that, at the risk of hijacking this thread, the importance of education starts at the primary level....elementary school and onwards before the college level. How do we as a society get kids, and quite frankly parents, to understand that access to higher education will not be a viable option unless there is an emphasis placed on educational achievement starting in k-12.....no matter how much money is available to go to college/trade/technical school. IE how do we change the underlying psychological/psychosocial barriers to achieving better educational outcomes in low income/inner city/rural areas......otherwise i suspect there will be an inherent component of monetary waste to this proposed program.
 

Crimson1967

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You mean like the PACT Program, which Kay Ivey ran into the ground and then Bentley reneged on his promise to make sure it was fully funded?

Yeah, I'm still ....ed about it.


But Booker's idea is an interesting one-- my main concern is OK, you're giving them this nest egg--now we need to give them a decent education so they know how to use it.

It all comes back to education, guys.
Maddox should be hammering that point.


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day-day

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I agree that this sounds nice at a quick glance but I see too many issues with the government involved in this social engineering project.

Basing this off of the family's income can be tricky in itself with who knows what loopholes people will be able to figure out including a lot of cash business that goes unreported.

It looks like this money is for the kids and not the parents. If a kid grows up with a higher income family but the parents don't provide the kid any money after the kid turns 18, that kid misses out on the pot of gold. Make it fair and give every child the same amount of the 18 years.
 

bama_wayne1

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I agree that this sounds nice at a quick glance but I see too many issues with the government involved in this social engineering project.

Basing this off of the family's income can be tricky in itself with who knows what loopholes people will be able to figure out including a lot of cash business that goes unreported.

It looks like this money is for the kids and not the parents. If a kid grows up with a higher income family but the parents don't provide the kid any money after the kid turns 18, that kid misses out on the pot of gold. Make it fair and give every child the same amount of the 18 years.
And we can pay for it by removing children as deductions.
 

jthomas666

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I agree. Access to higher education is key.....but I contend that, at the risk of hijacking this thread, the importance of education starts at the primary level....elementary school and onwards before the college level. How do we as a society get kids, and quite frankly parents, to understand that access to higher education will not be a viable option unless there is an emphasis placed on educational achievement starting in k-12.....
That is exactly what I meant--sorry if I wasn't clearer. How will an underprivileged 18 yr old know what to do with $50k without a good elementary/secondary education?
 

Bama 8Ball

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That is exactly what I meant--sorry if I wasn't clearer. How will an underprivileged 18 yr old know what to do with $50k without a good elementary/secondary education?
There would have to be additional support. I mean, I grew up dirt poor, you drop 50k on me when I turned 18 and I wouldn't have known whether to crap or go blind.

Has he talked about how it would be funded yet? Sounds to me like another huge, money sucking program that I will involuntarily help fund.
 

Bazza

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Interesting thread and has me wondering what is considered an adequate household income these days in order to properly support and care for a child?

Is there such a thing as this number?

And what about additional children....how much income should a household have?

Debatable, I'm sure, but there must be some kind of base number.
 

MattinBama

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People who struggle to earn their own way have difficulty spending money wisely. What hope is there for those who are handed it?:confused:
They get to fail their whole life and then be President and have a cult of 30% of the population believe whatever crap they spew?
 

BamaInMo1

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You mean like the PACT Program, which Kay Ivey ran into the ground and then Bentley reneged on his promise to make sure it was fully funded?

Yeah, I'm still ....ed about it.


But Booker's idea is an interesting one-- my main concern is OK, you're giving them this nest egg--now we need to give them a decent education so they know how to use it.

It all comes back to education, guys.
I would expound on this a little. Every 9th and 11th grader should have to take a financial education course and pass it.
Also, if you do this across the board for ALL underprivliged kids I'm for it but if you are going to do it for only one or two races/minorities then to me you're doing the same thing you're preaching against in doing this to start with.
I would also say that in order to access the funds you HAVE to graduate high school.
 

4Q Basket Case

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You mean like the PACT Program, which Kay Ivey ran into the ground and then Bentley reneged on his promise to make sure it was fully funded?

Yeah, I'm still ....ed about it.


But Booker's idea is an interesting one-- my main concern is OK, you're giving them this nest egg--now we need to give them a decent education so they know how to use it.

It all comes back to education, guys.
I don't know what Kay Ivey did with PACT, but I can promise you she didn't run it into the ground.

What did that was the fundamental underlying assumption of a self-funding program. Over the long haul (which PACT would have been), a diversified investment portfolio can earn about a 9% annual return. Some years more. Some years less. Some years, you back up. There are a few things you can do to take a little of the year-to-year volatility out of it, but it will never be a parabolic curve. Still, over the course of a full business cycle, it pretty consistently reverts to a mean of between 8% and 9%. To get more than that, you have to go so far out on the risk curve that you begin to blur the distinction between investing and gambling.

The problem arises when college tuition rises faster than that for a long period of time. As it did in Alabama, rising in the 10-15% range for a number of years in a row. Expecting returns of 8% - 9% to cover costs increasing at 10 to 15% just doesn't work.

So you have a set of options, none of which are particularly palatable:

1. You can fess up that the program isn't self-funding, and have the taxpayers step in to plug the gap.

2. You can say, "Oops! We messed up. Here's your money back, with the earned return. Good luck funding college." But if you do this, you have to come up with something to handle those whose returns subsidized the gap between return and cost for the several years during which the reality of the situation was dawning on you.

3. You can track tuition costs to the return in the PACT program. Besides the tail wagging the dog, that would have stopped the incredible improvement in the physical plant, quality of faculty, and quality of student body in its tracks.

I don't know what Kay Ivey did or didn't do to this program. But whatever it was pales in comparison to the flawed assumptions at inception. This is why Economics is called the dismal science.
 
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