April 2015 Newsletter
RAISE Texas News
Registration Now Open for the Advanced Financial Coaching Training in June
RAISE Texas is partnering with TSAHC to offer HO370- Advanced Financial Coaching- Taking Your Practice to the Next Level on June 1-3, 2015 in San Antonio. Registration is now open for the training! The training is being offered for only $75 thanks to our generous sponsors: The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas- San Antonio Branch, BB&T, J. P Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Department of Housing & Community Affairs. The deadline to register is Friday, May 15th, so register today! Click here for more information about the training and hotel accommodations. We hope to see you there!
The 2015 Legislative Session Policy Update
All bills have been filed and the 84th Legislative Session is in full swing. RAISE Texas and its partners are working with several Legislators on a number of asset-building bills relating to our mission. We emailed out last month a comprehensive list of bills that we will be tracking. Most of the bills fall into the following three categories:
Visit our Texas Legislation page at any time to see the list of bills that we are tracking or to check on their progress. Starting later this month, we will be sending out weekly updates on the bills that we are following and how they will impact our work and Texans. We hope that you will follow these policy updates and join us in supporting our state policy work.
New Brief on Children’s Savings Accounts Mentions CS4C Program as Example
The Urban Institute released a brief, A Review of Children’s Savings Accounts, to discuss their benefits, provide international and domestic examples of CSA programs and highlight some research on their effects. One of the programs mentioned in the brief is RAISE Texas’ Child Support for College (CS4C) program. Click here to read the brief, or visit www.raisetexas.org/childsupportforcollegeinitiative/ for more information on the completed CS4C program.Texas News
City of Dallas Employees Can Take Advantage of CLC of Dallas
BCL of Texas announced that the City of Dallas has enrolled as an employer in the Community Loan Center (CLC) of Dallas to provide access to small dollar loans of up to $1,000 as a benefit to their over 13,000 employees. Want to offer the Community Loan Center as a benefit to your employees here in Texas? Contact Howard Porter from Texas Community Capital at howard@tccapital.org or 512-916-0508 to find a Community Loan Center program near you.
Austin Ranks Number One in Growth and Economic Segregation
The U.S. Census Bureau recently ranked Austin, Texas as the fastest growing major city in the nation, but another study shows that prosperity is not shared by all. A new report, Segregated City: The Geography of Economic Segregation in America’s Metros, a report released by Richard Florida and the Martin Prosperity Institute, found that Austin is ranked number one among large metros in the U.S. for economic segregation. The study takes a new approach of studying economic segregation by focusing on income, education and occupation. In Austin, individuals without a high school degree are highly segregated within the city. View this new report here.National News
CFPB Release Proposed Rules for Short-Term Lending
The CFPB held a field hearing in Virginia on March 26, 2015 to release the list of rules that it proposes to help rectify the short-term lending situation in the United States. Click here to view the list of proposed rules. There will be a period for public comment on these rules, but not yet. After releasing the rules, the CFPB is sending the rules to the Small Business Administration for review before putting them out for public comment. We will be sure to notify our network when the public comment period begins.
Bipartisan Financial Literacy Legislation Introduced to Help Student Borrowers
U.S. Senators Tim Scott and Joe Donnelly introduced the Empowering Student Borrowers Act (S. 781) to improve the financial literacy of college students and to provide access to tools and information to help student borrowers make responsible borrowing decision. The Empowering Student Borrowers Act would require the Department of Education to establish and maintain best practices for colleges and universities on useful methods to teach financial literacy skills and provide information to assist students when making financial decisions related to student borrowing. This information would include:
- Methods to ensure that students have a clear sense of their total borrowing obligations, including monthly payments and repayment options;
- The most effective ways to engage students in financial literacy education, including how often and when to communicate with students; and
- Ways to clearly communicate the importance of graduating when it comes to the ability of students to repay and fulfill their loan obligation.
Click here for more information and to read the entire press release.
