The smartest money our city will spend this year is a $53 million line item, buried in the $126.8 billion municipal budget, that will deposit $1,000 into individual, tax-protected 529 college savings accounts for every kindergartener in New York. Credit for the program goes to City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who read about a college savings plan in San Francisco in 2014, visited California to see it up close, and went on to launch NYC Kids Rise, a nonprofit that started with college accounts for 10,000 kids in Queens and now operates citywide.

In addition to the seed money from city government, Kids Rise accounts allow parents, relatives, and others to contribute to a child’s education fund, which is invested in low-risk stock index funds. The money becomes available at age 18, provided the child graduates from a city high school, and is available to kids regardless of immigration status.

“One thousand dollars for a kindergartner could be, on graduation, around $10,000, depending on contributions. But what’s also exciting is that funding can be used for vocational school, it can be used for a two-year community college, it can be used for a four-year college,” Menin told me. “A low-income child who has a college savings account is three times more likely to go to college than a young person that doesn’t have such an account, and four times more likely to graduate once they’re in college. Studies show that those who go to ongoing education earn more than 60 percent more in wages in their lifetime. That makes this program one of the single best ways to address income inequality in our city.”

Amen to that, Ms. Menin. In Long Island City, local businesses have chipped in $57,000 to add to the accounts of neighborhood kids, and a power company has added $25,000 for youngsters in the Queensbridge and Ravenswood public-housing developments.

New York now has an opportunity to replace foolish fearmongering about........

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