As you enter the world, a basic understanding of how to manage your money becomes vital for young adults. Unfortunately, proper education is few and far between.
Worldwide, only 33%of adultsare financially literate, according to the websitePossible Finance. Nationally, 4 out of7 Americans are financially illiterate and only 24% of millennials understand finance concepts.
Coastal Georgia schools aretrying to fill the void by offering skills on budgeting, saving and credit in social studiesand economics classes.
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Recognizing the issue, the Georgia Department of Education (GDE) updated itscurrent economics course to Personal Finance and Economics for the upcoming 2022-23 school year. It will focus more on budgeting, understandingand building credit, protecting against identity theft, understanding tax forms, understanding student loan applicationsand understanding pay stubs.
After getting feedback from parents, studentsand graduates of Georgia public schools on the need to have more emphasis on personal finance, the state made the change, said Megan Frick, communications director for the Georgia Department of Education. She added thatstudents will not have to take an additional personal finance course to graduate.
Incoming college students not understanding basic financialskills is an issueGeorgia Southern University associate professor of finance at the Parker School of BusinessBill Wells sees as well.
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He defines financial literacy as people having the ability to understand the basics of using money. He said other issues he sees are people not saving money for retirement, not understanding the process of writing a check or taking out loans for school.
He said learning about it in school is a start.
"You can't start soon enough, but I thinkmore and more Americans need some financial literacy — some basic skills to understand what's going on."
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A general economics course is offered in high school and is required to graduate.
SCCPSS communications director Shelia Blanco said economics is taught in grades K-12 as part of the social studies curriculum called Economic Understandings and is outlined by the Georgia Department of Education. The courses focus on the world, state, and local economics, as well as personal finance.
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Blanco said the traditional half-credit economics course is taught in a 12th grade social studies course, but middle school students can take the course if they are identified as accelerated or a potential Advanced Placement studentbased on standardized test scores.
Those middle students don't have to retake the course in high school.
Mercer Middle School secondary social studies teacher Valentina Quarterman said 6th and 7th grade students learn about world economics in theircourses. The class focuses on the globa impact of the economies of Europe, Asia, Latin America andAustralia. She said once students are in8th grade, students learn about Georgia's state and local economiesincluding agriculture and transportation industries.
Quarterman said in all three grades, the last topic discussed in each social studies courseispersonal finance.
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Long before the opening of the Junior Achievement Discovery Center, 7th graders throughout the district would participate in Junior Achievement's online simulations after completing social studies lessons. "This is our first year with a live simulation in which students can put into practice what they've learned in class at the Junior Achievement Center," Quarterman said.
Besides Junior Achievement, students complete lessons in theGeorgia Council for Economics Stock Market GameandEVERFI, which includes lessons the basics of banking and insurance. The district also offers personal finance and financial literacy courses in its career,technical, agricultureeducation (CTAE) pathway programs.
SCCPSS interim director of CTAE, Amy Perry, said that career pathway courses teachstudents about investing and making responsible purchases. The district's CTAE program choice program director Jessica Horton said students could take an investment and finance course as an half-credit or year-long elective at some schools.Horton said junior and senior students in CTAE pathway programs can apply financial literacy in work-based learning projects.
She said the course helps students to think about how a career relates to budget.
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"In some of our courses for CATE, it takes a child beyond learning about their own budget or their own checkbook, credit or debit, but it takes them to think about actually being in those careers," she said.
The district's office of college and career readiness director Isaiah Nealing would define financial literacy as a broad topic. "If you really focus on budgeting, you focused on those personal finance kinds of skills and applications that you want students to learn so that way they can use those as they become an adult."
The school district does offer a personal finance course as an elective, but it does not replace the required economics course.
At the time of publishing this article, the SCCPSS was unable to answer if personal finance will be offered separately from the economics course.
In the Effingham County School District, students in grades 10-12 can take an optional financial literacy course, withtopics ranging fromcareer development plans to analyzing tax laws.
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Diane Owens, who works in the curriculum department in Effingham County, said the current economics course taught in the district and throughout Georgia talks about free markets and not that much about personal finance. She would consider the current course as a prerequisite to a college course.
She said many students take a separate financial literacy course as an elective, but it is encouraged for all students.
Next steps
The recently opened Junior Achievement Discovery Center at Georgia Southern Universityis one way to address the issue of financial literacy. The center is oneof five locations throughout Georgia and the goal is to provide students with a more hands-on experience.
The center will serve about 100-to-150 students from Chatham, Bryan, Evans, Effingham, Bulloch, and Liberty county schools. In the upcoming weeks, eighth graders from Effingham County will be visiting the center. Students can either participate in JA BizTown and Finance Park programs to learn more about a specific business and how they operate.
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Wells said programs like the JA Discovery Center and other courses inside the classroom are an excellent way to expose younger kids to financial literacy.
Wells said in college, a personal finance course should be taught. He added that when people have the skills in understanding financial literacy, they can make the right decisions that involve their personal finances that will help them in the future.
"By high school, there should be something in the curriculum at least introduced somewhere in economics class, or general business class, or somewhere to try to introduce the idea of budgeting and savings and how to manage your funds."
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Nealing said there had been a shift across the country in which many people don't have basic skills in finance and personal finance. He said the district is trying to incorporate financial literacy skills into the curriculum.
"I don't think it's ever too early to start talking to kids about it," he said.
Bianca Moorman is the education reporter. Reach her at BMoorman@gannett.com or 912-239-7706. Find her on Twitter @biancarmoorman.
