State Program Donates $100 Into Savings Account For Newborns
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - There's a new program in the state of Pennsylvania that's creating bank accounts for babies.
Proud parents Lauren and Zachary Moore signed their 3-day-old daughter Peyton up for the state's Keystone Scholars Program.
The program deposits $100 into a savings account for every baby born in Westmoreland and Indiana Counties, plus four other counties elsewhere in the state.
"I literally just went to the website on my cellphone sitting in this bed and just filled in the information," said Lauren Moore, Peyton's mother.
The Moores welcomed their third child, Peyton, into the world on Tuesday and signed her up for the program on Thursday.
The couple plans to bring her home to meet her older twin sisters later Thursday afternoon, but Peyton is already ahead of her siblings in the financial planning department.
"I went to a private college and then to law school so I left school with a lot of debt and no college fund to help with that debt, so it's a nice program to start them off so young and to think about saving for college because it's nothing I thought about," said Moore.
Her husband agreed—saying that he will now remember to add money to the account to keep it growing over the years.
Pennsylvania's State Treasurer Joe Torsella paid the happy family a visit in their hospital room on Thursday morning, calling Peyton "a pioneer" in the program.
The father of four said he remembers the stress a young parents feels all too well.
"We're making a $100 investment, but we're trying to use it to incentivize people to start thinking about savings. It is never too early," said Torsella.
Philanthropic dollars, not tax dollars, will fund these education accounts. Parents must sign up online to claim the money and only babies born this upcoming year will be eligible. There's legislation in the works to bring the program to the state's remaining counties.
Peyton is only the 20th little one to sign up for the program in Westmoreland County.
The Moores are just glad to have one less thing to worry about—at least for now.
"You're thinking of who's going to take care of them when you go back to work, sleep schedules, feedings, but setting up a college fund is not something you think about in the first couple weeks of bringing a baby home," said Moore.
