High School Students Fail FinancialEd

PEWAUKEE, Wis. - (05/24/06) – The average high school studentin Wisconsin is failing financial education, according to a newreport issued Tuesday by the bipartisan Jump$tart Coalition forFinancial Literacy, a group comprised of credit unions, banks andother financial service professionals. Wisconsin students, onaverage, answered just 53.1% of questions correctly on a financialliteracy survey–a failing grade based on academic gradingscales. The national average was just 52.4%. The goal was tomeasure high school seniors’ competence in basic finance,like money management, debt, savings and spending. Release of thestudy comes as top financial regulators, the heads of the FederalReserve, Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Treasury, weretelling the Senate Banking Committee of the need to increaseeducation on critical financial decisions, like home buying andretirement saving. “The young people of this state need to beprepared to responsibly handle their finances and make intelligentdecisions with their money,” said Brett Thompson, presidentof the Wisconsin CU League and a partner in Jump$tart, of the newstudy. Credit unions around Wisconsin have expended significantresources over the past two years to offer financial educationcourses around the state on issues like youth savings, creditscores, online financial resources and financial services for theunbanked. Jump$tart partners include CUNA, the American BankersAssociation, the Federal Reserve, Consumer Federation of Americaand Visa USA.