CLEVELAND, Ohio — Every Cuyahoga County kindergartner would receive a $100 college savings account under a plan county Executive Ed FitzGerald says will create a "culture of college attendance" for children and their parents.

"This will have a transformational effect, and not just on finances," said FitzGerald, who will announce the county-funded program today at the annual Invest in Children conference. "It can change expectations."

The ongoing effort -- which would kick off next fall with about 15,000 children -- will fulfill the county charter's mandate that County Council establish a postsecondary scholarship program. But rather than provide a simple scholarship fund, FitzGerald told Plain Dealer editors and reporters Wednesday he wanted to create an incentive for all county children to attend college.

According to research from Washington University in St. Louis, children who have designated some savings for school are nearly four times more likely to attend a four-year college than youth with no account.

FitzGerald acknowledged that the initial investment pales when compared to the cost of college, but he said he hopes schools, universities and nonprofit institutions will add to accounts over the years. And he hopes the accounts encourage children and families to save.

"Our initial deposit primes the pump," FitzGerald said. "It really is important that it's a structure that other entities can build upon."

The program, which would be the country's largest, must be voted on by County Council, which is expected to approve it. The planned program would be open to children entering public, private and parochial schools. Safeguards on each account will ensure that the $100 can only be used for postsecondary education.

The account will likely remain active until the student is in his or her mid-20s, FitzGerald said. If the money hasn't been used by then, the $100 would revert to the county.

Leaders of Cuyahoga County's 31 school districts, including Cleveland, are embracing the savings program, said Robert Mengerink, superintendent of the Educational Service Center, which coordinates services to the districts. FitzGerald recently outlined his plan at a monthly meeting of superintendents.

"We are basically telling every child who enters kindergarten in Cuyahoga County that we believe you can go to college," he said. "I don't think people realize how important that could be. We are creating an opportunity for a lot of families."

FitzGerald stressed that education is directly related to wealth.

About 28 percent of Cuyahoga County residents have bachelor's degrees, on par with the national average, according to the U.S. Census. But nationally, fewer than one in 10 low-income students graduate from college by their mid-20s.

FitzGerald's savings account program is similar to San Francisco's Kindergarten to College initiative, in which the city gives a $50 savings account to 4,500 public school kindergartners each year. That program was developed with the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a Washington D.C. organization that promotes saving and protecting assets and led the development of child savings programs.

Cuyahoga County is paying the agency $22,000 to help develop the program here, said Leigh Tivol, the agency's director of savings and financial security.

Tivol said about a dozen other communities nationwide have set up savings account programs for children but none is on the scale proposed by Cuyahoga County.

"We think that savings is not the silver bullet to higher education success but has been in many places a missing piece of the puzzle," she said. "An account dedicated to higher education changes the way parents think about what is possible for their children"

FitzGerald said he is still working out many details of the plan, including setting up a board to approve using the money for vocational purposes.

The county will work with Huntingon or PNC Bank to set up and oversee the accounts, he said, and the program will cost taxpayers about $2 million a year.

The county freed up about $3 million a year for higher education and vocational training by laying off workers and streamlining operations in its first two years as a charter government.

Although the initial investment is modest, the savings program will be successful if gets people to think about college and save for an education, said Notre Dame College President Andrew Roth. He and representatives from most of Cuyahoga County's public and private colleges met Tuesday with FitzGerald.

"At the end of the day, and [FitzGerald] realizes it, he needs another zero," Roth said, referring to the $100. "But nobody knows where that will come from."

Roth said Notre Dame is considering matching a student's savings, to a certain amount, to attend the South Euclid school.

He commended FitzGerald for setting up the program.

"It sends a two-pronged powerful message," he said. "One is that yes, there is a personal responsibility to fund your own education. But if you are willing to do that, there are tools people are putting in place to try and help you."

With Karen Farkas

To reach these Plain Dealer reporters: ljohnsto@plaind.com, 216-999-4115

kfarkas@plaind.com, 216-999-5079