Blog - Financial Literacy Legislative Update October 2009

I spent sixteen years of my life in school learning, eventually molding my brain to be sufficiently competent to earn an honest living. The goal was to get out from under the comfort of mom and dad’s roof and start a life of my own. Would you believe that in all those 20,000 plus hours of classroom study, not to mention after school homework, only a handful of those hours dealt with how to be successful with my income?

The sales guy at Discover Card spent more time with me than that. Just an impressionable freshman in college, you can imagine the financial impact that had.

Does anyone else find that odd? That we allocate such a small amount of education to teaching our children how to thrive with money? Is it any wonder we find ourselves in such a state of financial despair?

In a town hall meeting with Representative Geiss (HB 4511) and Representative Sheltrown (HB 4410), I learned of their ongoing efforts to modify current high school graduation requirements. Sheltrown’s suggested overhaul would move financial literacy from “elective” status to the superior echelon of “requirement”. In doing so, financial literacy would finally become a standard class offered in most of the schools throughout the State.

JumpStart, diligent at bringing financial education to kids in Michigan, immersed in the legislative bills, met with government, legislators and their aides, and testified during a House Education Committee meeting.

We are seeing schools and students struggling under the MMC requirements. It appears many schools are limiting resources to the core graduation requirements over electives. One such tragedy is at Brighton Schools. Glenna Fritz may be teaching her last financial literacy class after years of empowering students as it appears they are shutting down the program.

Last week I went to Lansing to gather more information and visit Senators offices on the Education Committee. While making a case for financial literacy, I was told that they were hearing from many constituents on the subject. Every call, every letter, and every email you send to legislators and those making decisions on this help a great deal.

In despair, knowledge is the key to recovery. Our state has some of the highest unemployment, budget imbalances, and foreclosures all while the auto industry is cutting the umbilical cord of security. We need to remove the unknowns of managing life and money, and educate our students so that they can succeed in this economic reality they are graduating into.

I have not found anyone yet who disagrees. Let’s all keep working together to help make the vital subject of money become mainstream classroom study, improving lives for generations to come.

I welcome your comments and ideas on this post. Or, feel free to email me at James@jpstudinger.com.

James Studinger
Author of Wealth Is a Choice
Vice Chair of the Michigan JumpStart Coalition

Michigan Youth Financial Educators Win Awards

Michigan Youth Financial Educators win awards! Below is an article from the Michigan Credit Union League. Check out the video clip to hear more about why helping youth learn to handle finances is "Taking Charge of Michigan's Financial Future!"


MCUL/FIC Youth Achievement Awards Presented (Includes Video)
The Family Involvement Council proudly presented two credit unions with first-place plaques for their involvement with youth. MCUL Public Affairs Director Mike Bridges attended the Metro West Chapter luncheon Dec. 10 and handed out the hardware.
Natalie McLaughlin of Community Financial Members FCU (MW) won the Youth Involvement Award. McLaughlin is the education partnership coordinator at Community Financial and has been instrumental in its student-run branches. She said the credit union began making youth a priority in its operations 16 years ago.
Michael Poulos, president/CEO of Michigan First CU (MW), accepted the Generation Next award. Michigan First CU has 10 student-run branches. Its program began in earnest about seven years ago and Poulos said he hopes to double the number of student-run branches in 2008.
To view a video clip of the presentation and hear from both Poulos and McLaughlin click here: http://support.cu-village.com/MCUL_Email/lt/t_go.php?i=203&e=Mzk5MA==&l=http://www.youtube.com/profile--Q-user--E-MCreditULeague.

Our Objectives

Objectives

Public and Educator Awareness. Increase public and educator awareness of the need to improve the personal financial literacy of Michigan youth.

Business Community. Facilitate business community involvement in the activities and programs of the Michigan Coalition.

Personal Finance Standards. Promote the teaching of personal finance by demonstrating how personal finance topics relate to existing Michigan educational standards and benchmarks.

Teacher Education. Promote teacher education workshops and conferences that increase educator awareness of personal finance content, materials and activities to assist in the teaching/learning process.

Technology. Promote the use of computers by teachers and students in order to gain personal finance knowledge and skills.

National Jump$tart Coalition

Our Mission, our Vision

Mission

The Michigan Jump$tart Coalition seeks to improve the personal financial literacy of Michigan young people, in partnership with the national Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy.

Vision

The Michigan Jump$tart Coalition envisions a time when all Michigan young people will have access to personal finance education in order to develop the necessary skills to be financially competent upon graduation from high school.

For more, be sure to visit the rest of our website.