Governor Ritter signs financial literacy bill into law

This afternoon in the West Foyer of the Colorado State Capitol Building, Governor Bill Ritter signed into law House Bill 1168. This Bill, sponsored by State Representative Rosemary Marshall, requires the State Board of Education to adopt model content standards incorporating financial literacy into existing math curricula.  Once this happens, school districts will then be directed to meet or exceed these new financial literacy standards. HB 1168, which passed the House on April 11^th and the Senate on May 2^nd, will help all Colorado students acquire the financial tools needed to succeed in a 21^st century economy. 

While it is too soon to tell what type of impact this new law will have on Junior Achievement, it is clear that this bill will go far towards raising awareness around the issue of financial literacy for youth in our state. What we do know for certain is that Junior Achievement programs have already been reviewed by independent third-party evaluators from the University of Northern Colorado and compared to Colorado Model Academic Content Standards. The purpose of this evaluation was to determine the extent to which the state content standards are addressed by the goals, objectives, content, concepts, activities, and skills taught by JA programs.

The findings of this evaluation revealed that JA programs address between 96% and 100% of the reading and writing assessment objectives, and between 77% and 100% of the mathematics assessment objectives for grades 3 through 10.  Additionally, the analysis revealed that Junior Achievement programs also teach many important skills not tested by CSAP or covered in the Standards or assessment objectives. Many life skills, such as budgeting, dealing with credit, applying for a job, and awareness of the world around us are highly valued but not included in skills deemed important for students.

What’s more, a recent internal review revealed that all but two JA programs focus either significantly or partially on financial literacy concepts, including personal financial responsibility, budgeting and saving, credit and debt, economic choices and issues, and risk and reward, to name a few. Clearly, Junior Achievement programs are well positioned towards meeting or exceeding any financial literacy standards that may be incorporated into state standards moving forward, which is something we can all be proud of.