Students to learn money management

Parents with painful financial experiences aren't comfortable teaching finances.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Ohio high-school students soon will get lessons in money management along with the tougher math and science standards the Legislature approved last month.
Instruction in personal finance is set to begin in 2010 but could start earlier if new state Treasurer Rich Cordray has his way.
When he was Franklin County treasurer, Cordray tallied the trail of home foreclosures, delinquent property taxes and other forms of financial ruin that affect thousands of Ohio families.
He decided one way to help was to get children savvy in the ways of money before life had a chance to do it for them.
"I realized, as people came through and told us their stories, how many people simply got into trouble because they just weren't very good at managing their money and nobody had ever helped them," he said.
"They didn't get it in school. Some of them didn't learn it from their parents or learned very poor lessons from their parents."
Cordray worked the last four years with Columbus Public Schools to educate high-schoolers about credit, savings and budgeting. He wants those lessons to go statewide sooner than required.
"There's no reason we should be missing out on another round of high-school students," Cordray told a volunteer committee of banking executives, educators, public officials and others he assembled to form a strategy for teaching personal finance. The committee held its first informal meeting last week.
Ohio is one of 48 states with at least some form of classroom instruction in money management, said Heather Morton, who tracks banking for the National Conference of State Legislatures.
She said a spike in foreclosures and failed loans in the 1990s grabbed lawmakers' attention.
"All of these issues that are coming home show that individuals aren't getting it. They're not getting it at home and they're not getting it at school," Morton said.
What Pa. does
Some states are reaching beyond high schools to make financial education a lifelong endeavor. Pennsylvania, for instance, has a Web site for its Department of Banking with links geared to grade-school kids. Need to find a financial education service in Harrisburg? Click on Buck the Dog to fetch it.
Morton said 17 states require a specific course in personal economics.
In Ohio, the instruction will be required as part of a math or social studies class, said Stan Heffner, associate superintendent for curriculum and assessment at the Ohio Department of Education.
The specific subjects were written by Ohio teachers and based on what's been successful elsewhere, Heffner said. They include how demand in the labor market affects how much money you make, the role of a person as a producer, consumer, worker and investor, the consequences of budget choices and how interest rates affect savers and borrowers.
School is a natural setting for such learning because parents, who often have painful financial histories, feel uncomfortable teaching it, said Laura Levine, director of the Jump tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, a financial education group backed by banks, credit-card companies and other financial institutions.
"I've heard personal finance described as sex education for the 21st century. It's the topic nobody wants to talk about. Parents are hoping their kids are learning this at school. Teachers are hoping they're learning it at home," Levine said.
Cordray plans to develop training centers for teachers with the help of banks and college programs.
"What can we do to put people in a better position to make better choices for themselves, to stay out of trouble?" he said.