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Financial Literacy and Economic Security
2009 March 28tags:Bailout,Credit,Economic Recovery,Economy,Education,Financial Literacy,Government,Obama Administration,The Little Guy   by Mitch Chester Here’s an opportunity for the Obama Administration to employ a long-term fix to one of the root causes of our current economic quagmire.
The Secretary of Education should seriously explore the idea that federal educational funding for high schools include a requirementthat all graduating students successfully complete a financial literacy course.
 Of course, this is not a new idea. Teaching financial literacy on a wide-spread basis has been a subject of discussion for decades. But except insome limited cases, the most advanced economy in the world (or so we thought) failed to actually train young adults about how to balancecheck accounts, understand the difference between stocks and bonds and navigate the world of credit…including mortgages.
In no smallmeasure, the current mega recession is an unintended consequence of a massive educational failure that turned a blind eye to teachingyoung Americans about the economy.
 While this concept is not new, the opportunity to actually do something about it is fresh as Washington re-thinks its eduction policy. Perhapsthe most important thing we can do for future generations is to start educating our young and theirs about how our economy works, on a macroand micro level, starting with personal finance.When I graduated high school, I could not balance a check book. My eyes glazed over at the sight of a stock table in the local newspaper. Itook it on blind faith that whatever that small print was when I signed my first mortgage obligation would be “okay.” It’s taken a long time toOne key lesson we are nowliving...Without financial literacyclasses the road to financial security istoo risky.
 
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catch up. Today, students who will ultimately be asked to pay down the unthinkable budget deficit with their blood, sweat and tears will needto understand on-line banking and complicated money programs to get into housing and establish and preserve that intangible commoditycalled credit. Some, as entrepreneurs and business owners, will need to comprehend what it means to establish a budget and navigate simple but essential accounting and tax concepts. This is not something to be put off. Our high schools should assist in this challenge.While there are resources on the internet that address this deep pocket issue, we need an established educational curriculum across all fiftystates that has the discipline of actually engaging students in financial education.
This is as important as secondary school math classes andshould
 not
be voluntary.
  No, not everyone who attends such a course will get it. But for those that will, the payoff for them and the national economy will be limitless.Smarter financial consumers will equal a more secure economy. Think of where we might be right now if financial literacy was a main stapleof our educational system for the past 50 years. You can count on it…we’d be a lot better off.Edit This from
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 Economic Recovery,Economy,Education
 
,Fincancial Literacy
 
,Obama Administration,The Little Guy  2 Responsesleave one
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 1.2009 March 31Patricia Bowles  permalink   British Columbia is the only Canadian jurisdiction that has mandatory financial life skills training in its high school curriculum. The BCMinistry of Education introduced a new course called Planning 120 in 2004/05 which is mandatory for all grade 10 students in the province.The BC Securities Commission developed a resource for teachers who teach the course and has provided free face-to-face and webinar training for BC students and full time teachers. It has also done a lot of research to determine its effectiveness — both with students,teachers and high school graduates.We have learned a great deal about how to teach the basic concepts of finances to youth and believe we have a lot to share with otherswho want to introduce the subject into high schools. The key one was teachers need to be taught how to teach it because very fewteachers had any kind of financial education themselves.Last year, the BC Securities Commission licensed its program to the Canadian federal government so it is now available on-line inEnglish and French. Here are some websites to check out:http://www.investright.org/ http://www.bcsc.bc.ca/Planning10/ themoneybelt.gc.caReply edit 2.2009 April 1Patricia Bowles  permalink   British Columbia is the only jurisdiction in Canada that has mandatory financial life skills training in its high schools. Five years ago thegovernment introduced a new program which included 20-hour Finances component.The BC Securities Commission, which lobbied for such a course, then produced a very comprehensive and creative resource for teachersand then set out to market it to teachers. What it learned was that the biggest barrier to teaching financial literacy in the schools was theteachers themselves.The City has won five national and international awards.The Commission has spent the past five years learning how best to teach teachers and get the best results from students. Ithas researchedits effectiveness in the short and longer term. While our program isn’t perfect by any means, it is an important first step and other  jurisidctions could learn from the Commission’s experience. The Federalgovernment was so impressed with the BC program that it
 
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asked the BCSC to license it to them. We did and now there is an on-line program called The City as well available in English andFrench.Check out these websites:http://www.bcsc.bc.ca/Planning10/http://www.investright.org/ http://www.themoneybelt.gc.ca/home-accueil-eng.asp Reply edit 
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