Fossil Free College Savings - ScholarShare 529 Petition

Climate change threatens our children’s futures. In saving for college, parents should be able to invest for a better future - one that is based on clean energy, not fossil fuels. However, the state-run 529 college savings plan, ScholarShare, has no fossil-free options. As concerned parents, caretakers, family members, and community members, we ask the ScholarShare Investment Board to provide fossil-free investment options. We urge the Board to act swiftly to ensure our children's education does not contribute to the climate crisis our children face. Please sign this petition to help steer California toward supporting a sustainable, fossil-free future.

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Subject: Please add fossil-free fund choices to the CA ScholarShare 529 plan

 

Dear ScholarShare Investment Board Members,

I am looking for a 529 plan for my child to ensure their access to education. I find it unacceptable that funding my children's education will also fund the fossil fuel industry and worsen climate change.

I appreciate all your hard work helping the next generation navigate the challenges of paying for higher education. Your CA ScholarShare 529 plan is a powerful tool for saving for our children's futures and a static fund is a good start.

Unfortunately, the investment portfolios you provide in the ScholarShare 529 plan contains fossil fuel industry holdings, including Baker Hughes, OneOK and Siemens. As a result, investing in a 529 plan requires investing, potentially inadvertently, in the very companies driving the destruction of our planet – fossil fuel companies.

I am asking that California's ScholarShare 529 offer better choices: to add at least one 100% fossil-free fund, both static and aged-based, to its 529 fund options.

Why? Because I want to be able to save for my loved ones' education without funding the fossil fuel companies that are putting their future at risk.

In short:

  • We want the option of both static and aged-based fossil-free 529 portfolios.
  • TIAA’s ESG enrollment year investment portfolios are not acceptable. While the ESG fund is a start, ~ 2% of its holdings are in oil, gas, or coal companies. We feel that any investment in the fossil fuel industry is too much.
  • Virginia (PRBLX), New York, and Utah (Vanguard FTSE Social Index Fund) already provide static fossil-free 529 funds.
  • Fossil-free static and age-based 529 fund options are an unmet need.
  • California's ScholarShare and TIAA have an excellent opportunity to be a leader in fossil-free 529 options in California and across the country.
  • It would be a huge win for the entire country if that fund series went fossil-free.

Please use your relationship with TIAA to ask that fossil-free funds, both static and aged-based, be added to CA 529 options. Age-based/target date funds are important because it will enable busy parents to "set and forget it "rather than having to create custom portfolios and rebalance holdings every few months.

Fossil fuels are a bad investment, with lower returns and higher risk, as S&P Global notes. Providing fossil-free options is a good idea for prudent fiduciaries.

If you are concerned about fund performance, please consider

  1. Adding high-performing tech industry companies back in (the current Nuveen funds, the ESG option omitted high performers like Apple and other tech companies)
  2. Providing fund options that are low in fees (it can be done)

Sincerely yours,