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Read NGPF's school-by-school analysis of financial education in America today
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Teacher Talk
Kudos to WSJ for asking the question and getting opposing viewpoints on the answer to the question. I am having trouble containing myself so I thought I better get my thoughts down on paper before I explode. First, the newspaper is asking the wrong question. The right question is “Should High School Students Be Required to Take A Personal Finance Course?” College is too late. The biggest financial decision that young people make occurs BEFORE college. Those decisions are “where are they going to continue their education?” and “how are they going to pay for it.” I received way too many calls in my days at Student Lending Analytics from sobbing students and their parents about their predicament of high debt and “I am only a junior.” As we know student debt has a long tail to it and has ramifications far into the future. It is that much harder to course correct several years into one’s college career.
In addition, why should we be waiting until college to teach young people the skills required to manage a checking account or how to avoid identity theft or the gotchas associated with a credit card. Shouldn’t we help them make the link between college major and career earnings BEFORE they choose that major (or decide what their post-college options are)? Don’t we want to give them a head start on establishing credit (or teach how them to check their credit report at annualcreditreport.com or teach them how to budget so the $1,500 in their account in September will last for the whole semester? Who knows, maybe even the course in high school can create the conditions for students and their parents to have THE CONVERSATION about college before it is too late. Did I convince you this information would be more helpful sooner rather than later.
Now on to the argument made in the article AGAINST having students take a personal finance course in college. Let me deconstruct the arguments one by one. These objections to personal finance education don’t stand up to scrutiny as we at NGPF have taken an approach to curriculum development and training teachers which address each of them:
Her closing statement is perhaps the weakest part of her argument: “Better regulation of products, sales and advisers, plus a few simple teachable rules, will do more to improve our financial lives than requiring ineffective college courses.” With the new Administration clearly signaling less regulation of financial products, sales and advisers (see recent actions re: CFPB and fiduciary rule if you don’t believe me), the urgency to deliver high quality financial education is greater than ever. Our job as educators has just gotten more important!
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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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