Wash U researchers say child savings accounts can be used to deliver reparations

As reparations task forces continue studying how to repay African Americans for past racist harms, Washington University researchers say there are tested policy models that can deliver mass repayment. In the June issue of the Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, the research brief Asset-Building Policy and Black Reparations: Effective Delivery and Wealth Accumulation explores three wealth-accumulating options for Black Americans to receive reparations. “They’ve got to become a population that also has resources that also has wealth that also wants to invest and be part of our economic system,” said Trina Shanks, a Wash U Center for Social Development faculty director. In the brief, researchers propose that local and state governments use the Child Development Accounts policy model to deliver potential reparations. The model allows repayment to be provided to African Americans as a cash transfer, in a savings plan account or a trust fund. Child Development Accounts is a policy model used in seven states including Pennsylvania, Illinois, Nevada and California. State legislatures created them to invest in the wealth of children in their states. It is an account that grows over time. They are designed to help children save for college, open a business or...