Working Papers School-based Savings Programs, 1930-2002 Ashley Cruce Working Paper 02-7 February 2002 Center for Social Development School-based Savings Programs, 1930-2002 Ashley Cruce Working Paper 02-7 February 2002 Center for Social Development George Warren Brown School of Social Work Washington University One Brookings Drive Campus Box 1196 St. Louis, MO 63130 tel 314-935-7433 fax 314-935-8661 e-mail:
[email protected] http://gwbweb.wustl.edu/csd Introduction The purpose of this research is to identify historical precedents of school-based savings for contemporary asset-building policy and programs for children and youth. This is the second of two CSD Working Papers covering the history of school-based savings programs. The first paper covers the early history of school savings banking during the Progressive-era, 1870-1930. This paper focuses on school-based savings programs from the early 1930s to contemporary times. Ultimately, this research aims to discover how these historical and contemporary school-based savings programs were started and managed, who has participated in them, their underlying values, their results and impacts, and implications for future asset-based programs for children and youth. Starting where the first paper ended, we examine School Savings Banks (SSBs) from the early 1930s to 1940. During the 1930s, School Savings Banks (SSBs) experienced a slowdown due to economic hardship and distrust of banks after the 1929 stock market crash. Starting in the early 1940s, the history of school-based banking dovetails with children’s activities on the home front during the Defense period and later during World War II (1941-45).