School of Social Work News

Professor William Elliott III spoke with WalletHub about the ending of the student loan moratorium. “The student debt problem requires that policy both deal with its symptoms and its root cause,” said Elliott. “Paying for college should not be a lifelong sentence.”

Professor William Elliott III spoke with Forbes about how San Francisco’s Kindergarten 2 College program, which begins with just a $50 deposit in a college savings account can make a difference. “When you have an asset, it allows you to begin thinking about your future in a more tangible way.”

Professor William Elliott III had an in-depth discussion with CBS News Detroit about President Biden’s new student loan forgiveness program. “For those who have received a degree and come out with debt, this is going to strengthen the return on the degree,” he said. “The money they are making from having gone to college will benefit them far more by not having all this debt on them for really years and years — decades even.” 

Elliott also spoke with The Guardian about how student loan debt can affect and delay financial decisions such as owning a home, getting married and starting a family. “You’re not going to achieve a sense of the American dream at a period of your life when it means a lot,” said Elliott.

Professor William Elliott III spoke with St. Louis public radio about the transformational power of Child Development Accounts and the effect they can have on multi-generational poverty. One of the key things he’s learned, Elliott says, is that the way out of poverty lies along the path of asset accumulation. “Building assets allows people to build their full potential,” he says, “because it augments their ability to tackle the system.”

Professor William Elliott III told Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts, that children’s savings accounts not only help families save for college, they can also instill them with hope and ambition. “Children’s savings accounts give people some grounds for believing they can change their future,” said Elliott.

Los Angeles recently opened more than 40,000 bank accounts – one for every first-grader in the Los Angeles Unified School District and contributed $50 to the students’ accounts. William Elliott discussed the LA program and advantages of children’s savings accounts with Here & Now. “Research shows that even small amounts of savings can open up possibilities for kids who might ordinarily never be able to save for college,” says Elliott.

William Elliott was the keynote for the Alice P. Lin Memorial Lecture at Columbia University. Elliott’s talk, "We Also Have to Give Children Something to Live For: Children's Savings, Student Debt, and Wealth Inequality,” argued that the drive Americans have demonstrated throughout their history comes not just from having enough money to pay their bills each week or enough to live on, but from the promise of a better future and that Children’s Savings Accounts can play a role in realizing that future.

Elliott is a social work professor, director of the Joint PhD program in social work and social science and the founding director of the Center on Assets, Education, and Inclusion.

Professor William Elliott is quoted in a New York Times article about the effects of Child Savings Accounts. New York City has announced a pilot program in which a savings account with $100 will be opened for every public school kindergartener. Elliott describes how even these small amounts can significantly increase a child’s likelihood of going to college, in part by offering students and parents a sense of both possibility and control. “They feel like they can change their destiny and their future,” he said.