Jump$tart Coalition Launching Program to Increase Financial Education in Schools by 25 Percent by 2025
The Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy today announced new goals for increasing by 25 percent the number of U.S. elementary, middle and high school students who are receiving effective classroom-based financial education by 2025. The announcement was made at the coalition’s annual partners meeting in conjunction with its Financial Literacy Month events.
Dubbed “Project Groundswell” for its plans to enlist the help of parents, family members, educators, volunteers and Jump$tart Coalition’s nationwide network of state affiliates, the campaign also will seek 25 percent growth in the number of teachers trained in personal finance education.
“Parents, grandparents and guardians are the most vocal advocates for their own kids’ education,” said Laura Levine, president and CEO of the Jump$tart Coalition. “Through this initiative, we hope to encourage family members to help us ask for financial education at their kids’ schools and provide information and resources they’ll need to get the attention of teachers and administrators.”
In the coming weeks, a virtual toolkit will be available on Jump$tart’s website for those who want to take part in the effort, including links to research that will help make the case for financial education in schools. Jump$tart’s online clearinghouse will help schools new to financial education find vetted resources from hundreds of providers, as well as the National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education and professional development opportunities for classroom teachers.
Project Groundswell is designed to help create demand for the financial education products and programs offered by the diverse members of the financial literacy community; while at the same time, these organizations can help meet the goals of Project Groundswell by promoting and distributing their own resources.
The focus of Project Groundswell is on getting financial education into more classrooms, regardless of state or local mandates, and at all levels, beginning in elementary school. Where financial education is already offered, the objective will be to increase the number of students receiving this education and improving the effectiveness of the education through teacher training and support and quality resources.
This summer, Jump$tart plans to undertake a benchmarking study to establish a baseline from which to track Project Groundswell. “The 25 percent growth goal is a starting point,” said Levine. “Jump$tart and its partners don’t plan to stop until every child is getting a sufficient financial education in school.”
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About Jump$tart: The Jump$tart Coalition is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization that seeks to improve the personal financial literacy of students in pre-kindergarten through college. Jump$tart’s nearly 150 national partners and 51 affiliated state coalitions work individually and collectively to educate and prepare our nation’s youth for life-long financial success. Jump$tart is the original promoter of April as Financial Literacy Month and publisher of the National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education. For more information about the Jump$tart Coalition, go to jumpstart.org or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
