America has a massive, growing racial wealth gap. The median white family today holds nearly 10 times the wealth of the median black family.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) is introducing a bill aimed at closing that gap. His idea is to give lower-income kids a sizable nest egg (nearly $50,000 in some cases) that they could use for wealth-building purchases, like a down payment on a house or college tuition.

These "opportunity accounts" would, theoretically, make sure all children have significant assets when they enter adulthood, rather than just those who grow up in wealthier homes.

Booker meets with eighth graders from the Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building on May 24, 2016. |  Al Drago/CQ Roll Call

"It would be a dramatic change in our country to have low-income people break out of generational poverty," Booker said in an interview with Vox. "We could rapidly bring security into those families' lives, and that is really exciting to me."

Similar ideas have swirled around think tanks since the early 2000s, but Booker appears to be the first high-profile senator to introduce legislation to create such a program. As possible 2020 presidential nominees like Booker begin to unveil ambitious policy ideas — like Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-VT) Medicare-for-all plan or Kamala Harris's (D-CA) new cash assistanceplan — Booker appears ready to focus on racial inequality in America, and how to solve it.

Opportunity accounts, explained

America's wealth gap grew rapidly through the late 20th century. In 1963, families at the top of America's wealth distribution had six times the wealth of those in the middle. By 2012, the wealthiest had 12 times the assets of middle-income families.

Specific government policies have driven the racial gap by making it specifically harder for minorities to accrue wealth. The decades-long practice of the Federal Housing Authority refuse to underwrite housing loans to many black families, for example, made it difficult for those families to pass on the earnings of real estate to their children the way a white family might.