A new state audit by the New York State Comptrollershows most people do not know enough about financial literacy. And it found the state can do more to promote the resources that are available
But a number of schools are working hard to teach financial education to students.
“It's really hard just to figure what you need to spend it on and like how to save — because it's so easy to just to blow it on things and not even think about it,” replied Mya Pace, senior, Cleveland Hill High School, Cheektowaga.
Pace just started working at the Olive Garden and now that she's earning money, she realizes how quickly it's spent.
“You swipe it and then a week later I'm like ‘oh, I wonder how much I have' and you're just like — what? — because you can't see the money leaving your hand. It's not the same as if like you have the cash you can clearly tell — I don't have any cash left,” described Pace.
“If I could have my way, we'd be teaching personal finance in kindergarten on how to save money,” declared Robert Haley, economics teacher at Cleveland Hill High School.
Haley has been teaching economics in the Cleve-Hill School District for 22 years. He says students learn a number of financial things in the classroom, from taking a student loan to financing a house.
“Then we look into apartment hunting. We look for an apartment, cost of apartments versus buying a house and of course, the problem with mortgage rates and right now why renting might be a better idea,” explained Haley.
Haley tells me one financial lesson focuses on student loans.
“Student loans come in two forms, public or private and very often people don't understand that and they get private student loans which is unfortunate because they don't have any forgiveness like government loans do,” Haley noted.
In the West Seneca School District, Robert Merkle, director of Career and Technical Education, also teaches financial literacy. The district has five academies, including a finance academy.
“One of the big things is student loans. Our students, they sign on for these gigantic loans without really understanding the gravity of it,” remarked Merkle.
Merkle says the coursework touches on many different things students will experience throughout their lives.
“Credit cards, good credit, bad credit, how a credit score is developed,” Merkle responded. “We ask them to choose their lifestyle and then we have them choose a house, what neighborhood do you want to live in and they actually go on to Zillow or a similar program and they look at the cost of the houses. They look at the cost of the taxes and then they have to choose a cell phone. They chose a car. They have to budget in car insurance."
Students also learn how to budget and file a tax return, something Mya will need to do now that she's working.
“And I was just like wow — money — it's really hard,” described Pace.
