Funding financial skills

THE TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT

August 26, 2008 08:14 am

— As we lament a seriously troubled national economy, a mortgage crisis and skyrocketing personal debt for many in our region, here are some pretty alarming statistics to toss into the mix:
• In Pennsylvania, only 20 of nearly 600 high schools surveyed in 2007 required a personal finance course prior to graduation.
• A recent national study of financial literacy among high school seniors revealed an average test score of 48 percent – an “F” on any grading scale.
Those pieces of shocking trivia come from state Secretary of Education Gerald Zahorchak, who, to his credit, aims to do something about it – at least in the commonwealth.
And initially, he’s looking to the financial business community to step up with dollars to get the ball rolling. In a two-page letter to the heads of banks and credit unions and to other financial leaders, Zahorchak asks for help in raising $5 million this year to “develop a model comprehensive K-12 scope and sequence to integrate financial education instruction at every grade level.”
Zahorchak’s plea, he said, was part of a partnership among his department, Pennsylvania’s Office of Financial Education and the nonprofit Team Pennsylvania Foundation’s Financial Education Fund. Team Pennsylvania Foundation is a public-private economic-growth group based at the state capital.
We wish him and others involved in the plan well.
As the state’s education czar, Zahorchak has worked very hard to improve the education opportunities and end results for our youth, as has the entire Rendell administration.
While our region’s financial industry has been very generous in supporting community events and projects, we see it taking more than a fundraising effort to improve the financial skills of our students – although that might be a good start.
Schools need to take a hard look at their curriculums and make changes.
Too often, we find young clerks in stores unable to complete a simple task such as manually making change. And how about the nightmarish stories of college students running up serious credit-card debt?
What a shame.
We agree with Zahorchak when he says, “It is time to invest in Pennsylvania’s teachers and schools to dramatically increase the quality and availability of personal finance instruction for our students.”
It could pay huge dividends.