Even before the start of the Great Recession, politicians, business leaders, teachers and parents were coming around to the idea that Americans were in desperate need of more and better financial literacy education. In fact, the CPA profession was among the earliest and most fervent advocates for improving the nation's financial literacy.
The AICPA's
360 degrees of financial literacy website was one of the first resources to focus on financial education as a lifelong endeavor -- from "K to gray" -- and helped launch Financial Literacy Month each April. The New Jersey Society of CPAs was among the first CPA societies to create a state-based financial literacy website,
MoneyMattersNJ.com, and offer seminars and conferences to the public taught by NJSCPA members.
Despite all the statistics about credit card debt and personal bankruptcies, particularly among young people, until recently financial literacy was not a part of the school curriculum in the Garden State. But that will change with the implementation of New Jersey’s new financial literacy standard, “
9.2 Personal Financial Literacy”, for all NJ grade K-12 students.
Beginning with the freshman class of 2010, all students must complete “at least 2.5-credits in financial, economic, business, and entrepreneurial literacy” by the end of their high school career. New Jersey joins 13 other states that now require financial literacy curriculum. Many NJ schools will start with 11th and 12th grade students this year and phase in the lower grades over the next year or two.
Since everyone involved is venturing into unchartered territory, last week more than 500 teachers, school administrators and business leaders from Sussex County to Cape May, gathered on Rutgers University's Busch Campus to plan for the near future. Organizers arranged a full day of panel discussions, exhibit booths featuring classroom programs (many of them free to schools), and workshop sessions that provided educators a range of tools and ideas for teaching the financial literacy basics from how to create a budget and write a check, to more advanced stock market games.
While educators and administrators plan the high school curriculum, financial literacy is working its way organically through elementary and middle schools as well. Just last night, I attended a program at a Parsippany-Troy Hills elementary school during which I learned financial literacy will be a part of the 5th grade gifted and talented program curriculum.
Junior Achievement (JA) of New Jersey is teaching financial literacy to elementary students through partnerships with the NJSCPA and many, many other companies and nonprofit organizations. And there is a myriad of other examples.
What's going on at your local elementary, middle or high school? Find out if you can help bring financial literacy education to K-12 programs in your community. The NJSCPA has an array of resources and speakers at your disposal.