Braylon Dedmon was just days old when his mother, Talasheia, received an offer of $1,000 to open a college savings account in his name. At first, she thought it was a scam. It wasn't.

The money, part of an experiment in Oklahoma, is one of a growing number of efforts by cities and states to help a new generation climb the educational ladder and build assets. This study and others aren’t finished, but at a time when the gap between the richest sliver of Americans and everyone else is growing, the results have been encouraging.

Photo: Alice Proujansky

Liz Anthony is one of millions of American moms whose ties to the workforce have been weakened by the pandemic. When her older daughters’ schools closed last spring because of COVID-19, Anthony, a self-employed public-relations consultant, closed her business indefinitely. 

In March 2021, almost 1.5 million fewer moms of school-aged children were actively working than in February 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. During the depths of last year’s economic crisis, women’s participation in the workforce fell to levels not seen since the mid-1980s. 

Photo: Steve Griffin

Israel Sanchez, who is working toward a bachelor’s degree in health care administration at Western Governors University, has been on a circuitous journey in higher education for nearly two decades.

Sanchez is among about 370,000 Utahns who have some college and no degree. Now, a recently approved legislative initiative aims to help adults finish what they started and prepare more highly educated workers for the state’s workforce.