Financial Literacy Efforts Gathering Steam in California

This Guardian (U.K.) article ("Bankers teach U.S. students how to avoid financial pitfalls") highlights efforts to improve financial literacy skills for high schoolers: 

Bad news:  "Only Missouri, Tennessee and Utah require high school students to have a semester of personal finance, according to the Jumpstart Coalition, a national group that promotes youth financial literacy."

Good news:  California is making progress towards a comprehensive financial literacy program:

"Last week, California assemblyman Ted Lieu, a longtime proponent of financial literacy in schools, got some traction with his bill to establish a "one-stop shop" for financial literacy curriculum - in several languages. It would concentrate financial literacy resources for teachers, parents and consumers - under the state controller's office. It will be taken up by the full assembly in May."

Here is a PDF of the bill.  Here is the main body of the bill, which I must admit seems a bit sparse in detail and measurable results, but I guess it is a start:

"Beginning in 2011, the Controller shall provide to the respective chairpersons of the Assembly Committee on Banking and Finance and the Senate Committee on Banking, Finance and Insurance an annual report on the initiative. This report shall include, but not be limited to, steps taken to partner with the financial services community and governmental and nongovernmental stakeholders to improve Californians’ financial literacy, a description of the basic financial skills information available on the Controller’s Internet Web site and plans to improve that clearinghouse of information, any nonstate funding received for purposes of this initiative, and any additional recommendations to enhance financial literacy in California. This report shall be submitted no later than August 30 of each year."

Comments

[Jean Barnes]

It's a great idea to require financial education, but even people who aren't in school should know that it's easy to learn. All you need is a book that covers the basics of financial literacy, like one of the Suze Orman books or Babe Lincoln's book, "How to Make Money and Lose Weight." ( http://www.extremeink.com/babe/peek.htm ) Once you know how to look at a page of small print and find the one or two things that are important to read, you'll be able to make informed decisions and avoid unpleasant surprises. It would be unfortunate if a requirement for financial literacy education in school had the effect of making other people feel that they can't understand the subject without a high school diploma or a college degree.

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