Boulder Valley to require money management course

By Stephanie Seifried, For the Camera
February 16, 2006

Teenagers don’t know how to balance a checkbook or keep track of their ATM receipts. They sign up for credit cards without understanding the obligations.

Boulder Valley School District currently offers courses in personal finance and money management only as electives, spokesman Briggs Gamblin said.

But as part of a New Century Graduate Curriculum, developed in 2002, students will be required to complete 12 hours of online course work in money management and personal finance in order to graduate, beginning with the class of 2010.

“One can clearly see by a show of hands how many students have checking accounts, but that doesn’t mean they have had to manage it.,” said Sean McCoy, a banking and accounting teacher at Boulder Technical Education Center.

“Uninformed teens tend to use a checkbook registry incorrectly or not at all, neglect to hang on to ATM receipts and tend to not understand the terms and agreements they are signing when the get a credit card,” McCoy said. “We are hoping to handle different aspects of debt management to help students with their finances in the future.”

Jared Polis, vice chairman of the Colorado State Board of Education and entrepreneur, was recently named chairman of a new financial education commission of the National Association of State Boards of Education. He believes students can benefit from more financial education.

“We all live in the real financial world and no matter what you will have to learn how the economy operates,” Polis said.

The financial education commission’s final report will be publicly presented at the association’s national conference, and copies of the report will be provided to a wide range of state, local and federal policy makers throughout the nation.

Polis says he plans to bring the information back to Colorado in order to strengthen the current personal finance programs in local high schools.

“I think financial education is one area that can make a huge difference because problems like bankruptcy and debt are caused simply by lack of knowledge,” he said.