Quick thought: reward for school attendance of state investment in college fund

Problem: high school dropouts (and even missing one day of school) costs us all money, since school funding is tied to attendance.

Problem: low-income people often don't develop any assets, and then don't know to develop assets.

Problem: higher education is increasingly unaffordable.

Potential partial solution: reward perfect attendance with a state contribution to a personal college fund (are they called 537s?) in the name of the minor student to be used for college tuition.

I know we have these funds that parents can contribute to tax-free, but we can also have the state contribute to them, and if the state contributes $1000 to a fund for a 7 year old, ten years later that $1000 becomes more valuable (almost doubles, right?).

Comments and thoughts on this idea greatly appreciated.