With schools opening across the country, here’s the latest news on what’s happening with financial literacy:

• Gooding, a rock and roll band, is touring US high schools to spread their message of financial literacy (Parade):

The band, which also includes Jesse Rich on drums and Billy Driver on bass, created Funding the Future, a nonprofit that delivers a message of financial literacy through an engaging music-focused presentation. They’ve been putting on their shows at high schools across the country.

• On The Money Magazine started to provide financial literacy education to high school students (St. Louis Public Radio):

Enter “On the Money Magazine Saint Louis,” a magazine for young adults dually focused on spreading financial literacy and providing its writers, artists, and photographers with professional publication experience. Shields is a journalist for “On the Money” and part of its core team of permanent members; she, illustrator Najee Person, and creative director Andrew Johnson joined “St. Louis on the Air” to talk about the program’s mission and upcoming growth.

• Indiana mulling a requirement for high school students to take personal finance course to graduate (Indiana Daily Student):

With the changes, high school students will have three diploma options: the College & Career Ready diploma, the Workforce Ready diploma and the College & Career Ready diploma with honors. All diplomas will require four years of math, a graduation capstone experience and a personal financial literacy course, according to CHE.

• In Vermont, high schools are adding financial literacy graduation requirements with the support of the Vermont Teachers Financial Literacy Summit (Rutland Herald):

Kim Ransom, a business education teacher at Fair Haven Union High School, was the first of three Fair Haven teachers to attend a weeklong course at the institute. It has resulted in great progress, Ransom said. Now, FHUHS is in its third year of a pilot program in financial literacy in partnership with the Champlain College Center for Financial Literacy. Financial literacy is a graduation requirement at FHUHS.

“We thought financial literacy was not only important for their success in college, but also in their careers and personal lives,” Ransom said. FHUHS offers two full-year classes on financial literacy, which Ransom said “go way beyond learning about a checkbook.” Topics include credit cards, car loans, credit scores, making financial decisions and other analytical topics.

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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