Bill would help schools, nonprofits teach financial literacy

[Robbien]

Source: Columbus Ledger

WASHINGTON --
The numbers are startling. More than half of high school seniors have debit cards and nearly one-third have credit cards. One-third of college students have four credits cards apiece when they graduate, and more than half of graduates have piled up $5,000 each in high-interest debt. The number of 18- to 24-year-olds who have declared bankruptcy has increased 96 percent in 10 years.

Surveys show that many of these young people also are financially illiterate: They don't understand such things as interest, minimum payments, credit reports, identity theft or that they may be paying off their school loans for years.

The problem isn't just with the young, however. One in five Americans thinks that the most practical way to become rich is to win the lottery.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. . . will introduce legislation this week that would authorize $1.2 billion in grants over five years to promote financial-literacy education beginning in grade school and stretching into adulthood.

. . .

As part of its Human Development 101 class for freshman, Tacoma Community College devotes a section to personal finance. Students track their weekly spending and learn about credit cards, minimum payments, savings plans and investments. James Mendoza, who teaches the class, said he focused on the nuts and bolts of finance.

"We don't expect them to be Warren Buffett, George Soros or any of the big dogs," Mendoza said. "But they need to understand whether a venti mocha is a need or a want."

Read more: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/254/story/650304.html

[pattmarty]

1. This is one thing I have been railing about for fucking years...........

......Basic "economics" should be taught right from the start in grade school thru high school. I have said for years the schools in this country teach the basic 3r's, for the only reason to prep the lower classes for Mickey-D types of jobs. THEY DON'T WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT FINANCE, as can be witnessed by the causes of this latest financial meltdown.

[Igel]

2. Who are "they"?

The people who make up the tests and the curricula? Most of them are involved in education, not finance, and take on freeper types on a routine basis. Not all. Just most.

The education departments that value mostly fact-free "critical thinking" and parent-free values clarification?

The parents who are more concerned either with teaching Zinn or making sure their kids get into good colleges? Or the parents who don't really much care, except so far as their words go?

Perhaps you mean the teachers who are allied with the ed depts. but are forced to teach not so much the curriculum they disagree with but the tests that they hate, because so many students have trouble with the curriculum or the language it's taught in, or are simply so unmotivated they don't care?

But I agree. Kids I know are more focused on recycling, environmentalism, being anti- a whole raft of -isms (and properly in favor of a different raft of -isms), and having the right critical (which is to say, adversarial) stance towards established authority. Worry about finances? Why?

Then, away from class, they worry about tech, about consuming, dressing right, listening to the right stuff, saying the right things, getting laid or avoiding appearing slutty. Now, the last bit is standard youth culture; and wasn't any different 30 years ago when a friend in 11th grade called me before a big test asking for help. He just knew he couldn't add fractions unless the denominators were the same, but how, exactly, did you get them the same. (11th grade, mind you. How, exactly, is the past better than the present?)

I also think they should teach basic stats and pragmatic implicatures (a bit of discourse pragmatics, a subfield of linguistics). But, no. At least in good schools they *do* ensure mastery of fractions before 11th grade.

[Lost in CT]

3. God forbid they should teach useful things in High School....

Hell I say bring back auto shop....

And lets face it Junior and senior year of high school is a bit of a waste... either teach the kids a trade or let them go to college.

[Thothmes]

5. The State of Virginia just changed their High School

curriculum to mandate a course in personal finance/economics as a graduation requirement. Think the change becomes effective for those students that will be 9th graders next year.

[lonestarnot]

4. Hoping my kid gets something out of advanced Econ next year!