Lawmakers Waking Up to the Need For Credit Education in Schools

I’m a long time advocate for credit and finance education in schools. So, I’m encouraged by recent findings that public schools are finally seeing the need to teach kids proper money habits.

Good News

According to the Council for Economic Education, between 2007 to 2009, the number of states requiring public schools to teach personal finance courses rose from 9 to 15. Furthermore, 13 states now require the personal finance course for graduation, this is also up from 7 back in 2007.

In addition to the state level activism, the U.S. Treasury Department announced a national award program to schools to offer financial education.

The Sad Part

The problem is that the public education system assumed this was being taught in the homes, but obviously it was not. Americans’ spending habits are worse than they ever were. In fact, parents would do well with some financial educations themselves.

There are basic financial concepts that are not being taught to kids, like;
• Saving up for purchases
• Avoid instant gratification purchases
• Learn how to save and invest money

The Price of Ignorance

Our bad financial habits cost the country big time recently when millions of Americans mortgaged themselves up to the hilt and didn’t take into consideration that “just because the Bank approved the loan, it doesn’t mean I should take it”. The consumer was just a guilty as the bank.

In the end, all of the aforementioned habits require discipline; something that appears to be grossly lacking from our current generation. Americans have been spending more than they were saving for several years now and (just like we saw with inflating home values) it can’t go on forever.

We have to learn the principles of finance if we ever want to see long term economic improvement.

I laud this new push for Credit Education and hope our next generation learns discipline and effective financial habits.

I’ve been in the credit restoration business for over a decade and love helping others remove bankruptcy and other negative items from their credit report. It tickles me to have individuals take control for their credit (and their lives). Click here for info about credit restoration.