cuyahogacounty

Cuyahoga County is ending its $100 college savings program for several reasons, but mainly due to the cost.

(Karen Farkas, Northeast Ohio Media Group)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County Council voted Tuesday to end a high-profile program that established a $100 college savings account for every kindergartner.

The move to repeal the two-year-old program occurred on the same day a national program to promote college savings accounts for children was launched by former President Bill Clinton.

The nationwide project, led by the Campaign for Every Kid's Future, is a collaboration of more than a dozen partners across the country, including the states of Rhode Island, Indiana and Colorado and the cities of Milwaukee, St. Louis and San Francisco.

It cited research that low-income students with $500 in college savings are three times more likely to enroll in college and four times more likely to graduate. Its mission is to raise the visibility of Children's Savings Accounts and ensure that at least 1.4 million children have a savings account in their name by 2020.

Cuyahoga's now-defunct program is listed in the project's directory of states offering college savings programs.

About 30,000 Cuyahoga County kindergartners were enrolled in the county's program, which is expected to be dismantled at the end of the year.

Council voted unanimously Tuesday to repeal the program. Several members said they are committed to education and encouraging students to succeed, but there are other ways to to it in a more cost-effective way.

"Please don't anyone walk away thinking because this program is being pulled it is a blight on our desire to support scholarships and education," said council member Jack Schron. "We will continue to do it in a positive way. We wish this had worked, but it did not."

Council members who had supported the initiative by former Executive Ed FitzGerald said the program was flawed. They said it was time to end it because it cost too much and too few people added to their children's accounts.

Under the program, the county set aside $1.5 million each year to open $100 college savings accounts in the names of each of the county's kindergartners in the fall of 2013 and 2014.

Families with accounts can keep the county's $100 deposit if they establish a 529 College Savings Account and notify the county by the end of this year where to transfer the money, according to the legislation.

Any county money not transferred will be returned to the general fund.

Council members have said they were unhappy with the results after two years and feel the money could be better spent to support education.

Since the savings program began, it has cost $293,000 for salaries and benefits to administer the program, $73,000 for contracting services and $45,900 for mailing.

Council members and those operating the program said they were disappointed that of the 10,500 accounts created last year that they tracked, only about 400 had been registered by parents or guardians. Of those, only 55 had received additional deposits from family members.