Teaching kids to wisely save and spend may be easier than you think – and there’s two Corvallis credit unions that make it downright fun.
Central Willamette Credit Union offers Kid Kash accounts, and Oregon State Credit Union has what it calls a Scottie Saver account. Both programs have slightly different approaches, so choosing may come down to what you suspect your kiddo will best relate to. But with both programs being so good, it could be your decision will simply come down to convenience.
Younger kids benefit from walking into a location, and Oregon State has more of them in Corvallis than anyone else. They give away a book to each kiddo that opens an account, The Berenstain Bears’ Trouble with Money for kids that are age 4 and over, Three Shoes for kids ages 5 to 8, and The Lemonade War for kids ages 8 to 12.
Also at Oregon State, and we love this, for every $5 deposited, kids earn a Scottie Buck, which is a voucher for kids to spend at the credit union’s branches for merchandise, including toys, games and other fun stuff. It’s all free, but kiddos have to save to earn the freebies.
Central Willamette also offers an excellent program. First, there’s the free piggy bank kids get when they open their account, a place they can stash dollars and cents for their next trip to the branch, and they also win prizes for every $5 saved. At this credit union, they use a punch card instead of vouchers. We also like this institution’s Kids Kash CDs.
As kids get older, both these credit unions offer excellent account products for teens, we especially like the Education IRA at Central Willamette, and the scholarship dollars at Oregon State.
Anyhow, whichever institution you choose, your kiddo will learn about the power of saving and spending intentionally and prudently, and of course, they’ll get their first experiences with the magic of compounding interest.
To learn more about Scottie Saver accounts at Oregon State Credit Union, click here. To learn more about Kid Kash accounts at Central Willamette Credit Union, click here.
Speaking of Money: Let’s talk spending per student, and equity among schools. It’s no secret that spending per student impacts educational outcomes, so one would hope that states and school districts distribute funding equally among schools without regard to which communities are wealthiest. However, a new deep dive into the data by WalletHub finds Oregon is the fourth least equitable state nationwide in this regard.
Here in Benton County, Philomath is the fifth most equitable school district in the state, and Corvallis Schools are 90th. WalletHub evaluated all 191 of Oregon’s school districts.
However, we would caution that WalletHub doesn’t appear to have broken down direct educational spending versus infrastructure and administration, which may be a higher per student in a smaller district that has less economy of scale. Still, the research is a good start on understanding where our state and school districts stand in relative terms.
Artificial Intelligence Protections for Kids: Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum is leading a 50-state request for Congress to study how artificial intelligence can exploit children and pass laws to prevent those harms.
Rosenblum on Tuesday released a letter asking Congress to appoint a commission to identify how artificial intelligence can harm children through the creation of AI-generated child sexual abuse materials and then pass laws based on those findings. Attorneys general of all 50 states, the District of Columbia and three U.S. territories signed the letter.
“We’re at a critical moment,” Rosenblum said in a statement. “By means of smart, pragmatic regulation, we can keep kids safe from AI’s potential dangers. Congress needs to take the lead, and the outpouring of support from attorneys general across our country and its territories demonstrates we are ready to support this work however we can.”
The letter gives disturbing examples of how artificial intelligence already is being used to generate child sexual abuse material.
“We are engaged in a race against time,” the letter states, “to protect the children of our country from the dangers of AI. Indeed, the proverbial walls of the city have already been breached. Now is the time to act.”
For example, the technology can mimic a child’s voice, or generate deepfakes – embellished images that appear realistic but are not. As a result, children who have directly experienced physical abuse themselves remain vulnerable to crimes that can put their fake images online, the letter said.
Other crimes are possible, such as a kidnapping scam that uses an AI-generated voice to make a parent think their child has been kidnapped, the letter said.
By Advocate Staff, with Artificial Intelligence Protections by Ben Botkin of Oregon Capital Chronicle
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