FACS Spotlight:

Update on Financial Literacy

When the United States Senate declared April Financial Literacy Month, it called upon Americans to turn their focus toward the importance of preparing today's youth to meet the economic challenges of today and tomorrow. But how can we accomplish this daunting task? Laura Levine, Executive Director of the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, believes that much of the answer lies in our schools' FACS classrooms.

Q: What brought you to the cause of financial literacy?

A: My background is in communications. I have been a journalist, a writer/editor, and a marketer-first, within credit unions and, later, in the stock market. It is not a long leap from financial communications to financial education, though it wasn't planned. I was working in the communications department at NASDAQ when the NASDAQ Educational Foundation asked to "borrow" me to serve as its interim director. After a few months, I realized that the board was not making any move toward hiring someone new. That was fine with me. I stayed for four years and would have stayed indefinitely had my predecessor at Jump$tart, Dara Duguay, not called out of the blue. I came to Jump$tart in 2004, and it was the smartest (read "luckiest") move I have ever made. I like to say that all my previous jobs were just training for this one.

Q: What is the current state of financial literacy in our school curricula?

A: We have come a long way, but we have a long way to go. If you look at the map of state financial education requirements on our Web site (www.Jump$tartcoalition.org), you will see that three states require a stand-alone course in personal finance as a graduation requirement and another 17 states require students to receive some type of personal finance content within another course. Most of these requirements have come about in recent years and I'm very encouraged by this progress. I am proud of the states that now require a full-semester course in personal finance as a high school graduation requirement, but I believe that this requirement should be the minimum. Jump$tart—and I, personally—would like to see financial education required at the elementary, middle, and high schools levels, and then something at the postsecondary level, perhaps in conjunction with orientation and/or financial aid.

Natural Fit for FACS

Q: What role can financial literacy education play in Family and Consumer Sciences?

A: I have said on many occasions that in terms of a subject-matter fit, I think FACS is the right "home" for financial education. Although thousands of business, mathematics, and economics teachers have done an excellent job of teaching personal finance, the core elements of personal money management sometimes have to compete with their other curriculum content. While FACS teachers also cover many other subject areas within consumer science, personal finance is frequently interrelated. It is the natural complement to FACS.

Q: At Glencoe, we feature Financial Literacy in our FACS programs and plan to continue to do this moving forward. How key are such educational tools and materials in this effort to optimize financial literacy?

A: We know that financial education in the classroom helps level the playing field for those students whose parents are unable, for a variety of reasons, to give them financial guidance at home. Effective financial literacy resources help classroom teachers, who may have varying personal finance experience of their own, guide their students in understanding the core financial concepts. Standards-based financial-education materials help ensure that the financial education students receive in school is balanced and complete.

Driving Finance Education

Q: What impact, if any, do you think our current economic conditions are having on Jump$tart's goals and the place that financial literacy holds in our society?

A: I'm tempted to say it is having an impact, but I think the real answer is that financial literacy has always been important. Perhaps current economic conditions have made people think about it more and make it a higher priority than it has been in the past. There is no one in any civilized society anywhere who does not need to know something about managing money and who does not make some sort of financial decision every day. Understanding money is essential to our survival in today's world, and this level of importance should be reflected in school curricula. If there is any silver lining to our country's current economic crisis, it is in easing the way to make this case.

Q: How can FACS teachers use Jump$tart as a resource?

A: While FACS teachers are very well trained and supported, I believe that many are not taking full advantage of the wealth of resources available to them through organizations like Jump$tart and its partners. Many of Jump$tart's state coalitions conduct teacher training and workshops that are offered at little or no cost to teachers. Jump$tart partners from the private and public sectors offer free and inexpensive curricula and educational tools, and many conduct training programs to support them. Those resources listed in Jump$tart's Clearinghouse have been reviewed for correlation to the National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education, as well as to ensure that they are balanced educational or informational materials and not promotional in nature. (For instance, you can find Glencoe's Consumer Education & Economics among the Clearinghouse resources.)

Q: What other practical advice would you give to FACS teachers in the pursuit of greater financial literacy for their students?

A: I think the teachers know this better than I do, but interactive activities help bring the lessons to life and make them memorable. I would love to see more high school teachers use automobiles as the focal point of their financial literacy lessons because the purchase of a car illustrates so many of the financial topics we want teens to start thinking about: saving (for a purchase or down payment); aspects of credit and finance; economic decision-making and informed buying; budgeting for ongoing payments and maintenance; and insurance. It will not cover everything we want teens to learn, but if it engages them—and most teens have at least some interest in cars—it could be what entices them to learn more about how money works. I think that more of these money lessons will stick if we show young people how they apply directly to their lives.

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