New Yorkers are intimately aware of the city’s affordability crisis. Rent hikes outpace wage growth, grocery prices continue to rise, and insurance premiums are historically high. This has ushered in a new era of policy solutions and an appetite to rethink approaches of the past. Mayor Mamdani’s release of the nation’s first True Cost of Living measure was just one recent example. But with any problem this pervasive, we must tackle it from every angle.
Real economic security is not simply a matter of making ends meet. It is the ability to save for the future, for yourself and your children. I call this “essential wealth,” and we need to help more New Yorkers build it.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin’s historic proposal to invest $1,000 in every public school kindergartener’s college and career future, with $3,000 going to those with the highest economic needs, does just that.
By expanding the NYC Kids RISE Save for College Program‘s initial seed investment, those numbers will more than double by the time a student graduates high school, with students receiving the $3,000 contribution accumulating more than $10,000 in their NYC Scholarship Accounts. Just as important, we can democratize access to capital markets, giving many communities their first real shot at building generational wealth.
This is urgently needed. New York City is not, and has never been, a level playing field. The City’s Racial Equity Preliminary Plan lays bare the structural, exclusionary policies that have locked communities of color out of wealth-building for generations. The results are stark: the median household wealth of white New Yorkers exceeds that of Black New Yorkers by nearly 15 to one.
The results are consistent with other studies. While there is no one policy solution to resolve systemic inequality, higher education is a proven lever for economic opportunity and mobility. College graduates earn nearly 60% more than those with only a high school diploma.
Still, structural gaps remain. Nationally, less than 10% of students from low-income households graduate from college, compared to nearly 80% from high-income households. Cost is a major factor. Research shows that an unexpected non-tuition expense is often the difference between a college student completing their degree and dropping out.
Free tuition programs and scholarships don’t typically cover the true cost of higher education, from housing to books, transportation, and technology. Students from low-income households disproportionately view college and higher education as out of reach.
Initiatives like the NYC Kids RISE Save for College Program work. A child in a low-income household with even a small college savings account is three times more likely to go to college and more than four times more likely to graduate than a child without one. This is more than a government program; it is social and financial infrastructure.
We have a responsibility to work together as a civic community to nurture it. The stakes are simply too high not to realize the full potential of what this community wealth-building platform can achieve for all New Yorkers.
As the City Council and Mamdani administration head into final budget negotiations, they should seize this historic opportunity to invest in our children’s futures and integrate wealth-building into the city’s ambitious affordability agenda. Creating lasting change is bigger than tackling routine costs. It is about ensuring the next generation doesn’t just get by, but gets ahead.
Jones Austin is the CEO of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA).