Dana Goldstein encourages giving savings accounts to kids:
Among kids who expect to graduate from college, the income of their parents makes little difference in the chances that they will actually enroll. But whether or not they have a savings account in their own name makes an enormous difference. Those who have an account are about seven times more likely to attend college than similar youth who did not have an account. A savings account also increases the chance that they will persevere and do what it takes to get through college. Those with a savings account opened for them as children are about twice as likely as their peers without savings to have graduated or to be on course to graduate from a two- or four-year college by age twenty-three. This correlation is particularly strong among young adults whose families earn less than $50,000.
The Dish 