In an address earlier today to the Colorado State Board of Education in support of the new Personal Financial Literacy standards…
Thank you for allowing me to speak today. And I’d also like to thank the CDE for including me in the standards rewrite process and asking me to represent the work of the Personal Financial Literacy (PFL) sub-committee. I congratulate you for including so many business leaders in the development of all the standards rewrites. It was a great blend of K-12 educators and business and higher education leaders that led to this outcome.
Being able to take charge of financial and civic responsibilities is a 21st Century skill, and the PFL sub- committee had a shared vision to advance a financially literate citizen than can apply their knowledge of personal finance including thinking critically about their needs versus wants, making economic choices, budgeting, credit and financial risk. We feel the PFL standards that have been woven into the Economics standards will result in students making informed financial and life decisions and lead to students having the broader economic knowledge will make PFL concepts more relevant, and in turn make economics more relevant. And, according to the national reviewing experts—the blending of PFL and economics creates one of the strongest sets of standards in the nation.
Schools are home to the talent that will drive Colorado’s economy, populate tomorrow’s workforce and make up the leadership of the future. It is common sense that we wove the 21st Century skills and work readiness competencies, such as creativity, entrepreneurial thinking, and making innovative use of knowledge, into the content of PFL and thus into Economics.
I think we can all take satisfaction through this partnership effort in knowing that we are positively influencing the future. When the private sector, the education sector and the social sector come together with a shared vision they create momentum that produces powerful outcomes. And that is the way I feel about our efforts here today on behalf of the students of Colorado. I was proud to be part of the process.
Robin H. Wise
President & CEO
Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain Inc.
One Comment
This is great news and hopefully an inspiration to other corporations to get involved in what really is a ‘national’ crisis and needs to be seriously addressed now. With the financial crisis, front and center, financial literacy education is getting the much needed attention. We still need to see state education leaders addressing the graduation requirement of a personal finance class, not economics, for all high school students. The key is education, education, education. I champion this cause each and every day as an author of Your Money Day One: How to Start Right and End Rich. It is available for young adults through amazon.com or an MP3 download on audible.com or iTunes. Please feel free to visit my website, http://www.michaeljwagner.net or blog http://michaeljwagner.blogspot.com.