States, cities and community groups that offer free money to families to jump-start college savings face a dilemma: The families most in need often fail to sign up.
To solve the problem, some states have transformed the accounts into automatic programs that help all families — especially the disadvantaged — imagine a college future for their kids and save for it.
The moves come at a time when even relatively affluent families are struggling to afford college. Adjusted for inflation, the average cost of tuition, housing and fees at public U.S. colleges and universities increased by about 64% between the 2000-2001 and 2020-2021 academic years, from $13,005 to $21,337, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
