Section III – Statement of the Critical Importance of Economic
and Financial Literacy for Students and Missouri Citizens
For the first time in over 500 years of recorded history, there is no threat of war between western European countries. Peace exists and will continue in a part of the world where war has caused the deaths of millions in our lifetimes. The cause of this peace is simple and clear. The Treaty of Rome was signed in 1958 creating the Common Market. This lowered barriers to trade and allowed the movement of people and investment capital, binding the futures of each participating country closely to that of their neighbors. The success of the Common Market has spread bringing more and more countries into its web of prosperity and peace.
Economic interrelations bring peace.
In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell symbolizing the dissolution of the Soviet Empire. For the lifetime of most Americans, the fear of a fatal nuclear confrontation with the Soviets has hung over us. While a full peace between east and west has not yet occurred, the incredible impact of Soviet dissolution is so immense that we have not yet fully processed it. Why did the Wall fall and the Soviet Union disband? There is one answer. Their economic system was unable to compete and they were falling farther and farther behind the West.
Economic performance brings peace.
Americans live in unsurpassed bounty. Our poor live better than most of the rest of the world. For over two centuries, immigration to the United States has been the clear choice of the world’s itinerant people. Why? It is because our economic system is very productive and grows.
Economic success improves the lives of people.
Children and youth embody the hopes and future of our society and our world. At every turn parents, grandparents, friends, and community demonstrate that young people bring out our best impulses, our best behaviors, and our best visions. In American society, we place a high value on every child achieving her or his potential – on becoming the best that they can be. Education is the keystone, the one and only element that can provide the wings, the transport that carries each child to their eventual destiny. And so we honor classroom teachers and our schools, imploring them to provide the tools, the insights, the skills, and the perceptions that can carry our young ones to meaningful, satisfying, and productive lives in the adult world.
Reading, writing, and arithmetic are the basic “three R’s” that once defined traditional education; however, for the past 150 years society has asked for more to provide our young the ability to function effectively in a world of growing complexity. The curriculum has expanded to include the sciences, social studies, and fine and physical arts, not to mention a wide range of vocational and agricultural skills. Economic and financial literacy have been overlooked. The system that brings peace to our world and bounty to our tables is largely ignored.
This Study is founded on the conviction that this literacy is not only fundamental to the ability of each person to function effectively, but that our national health and security are dependent upon economically literate citizens. This is not a choice of adding something nice, but of institutionalizing a literacy critical to the future of our society.
We must enable our people to understand and function in lives filled with economic and financial decision making. But we cannot achieve this by simply continuing to function as we have in the past. We have made a start over the last two decades, but now are called to move to a new level of effectiveness. Our schools simply do not train young people to understand the fundamentals of economic decision-making personally or in their corporate lives as workers, consumers, and citizens. Our teachers are not trained adequately by the existing system in Missouri to provide the conceptual base, the practical knowledge or the requisite skills.
Everyone believes children and youth should possess a basic economic and financial literacy.
Everyone believes that schools are not currently providing this needed literacy.
Therefore, the purpose of The Study called for in Missouri House Bill 1973 and in the Governor’s Executive Order is to bring together Missouri’s educators, business and labor communities, and interested citizens to fashion an answer – to provide a path that will bring economic and financial literacy to Missouri students - to address funding issues related to accomplishing the integration of economic and financial education into existing curricular areas - to provide improved teacher certification – and to address training and testing issues to assure success.
The recommendations arising from The Study called for by the Governor and the Missouri General Assembly must be practical as well as effective. Teachers and schools already carry a heavy burden of expectation. The intent of The Study is to demonstrate that reading, writing, and math can be taught effectively when using real world experiences that illustrate economic and financial principles. If young people are to be equipped with the ability to reach their full potential and function effectively in the adult world they must be provided these skills and understandings that come from economic and financial literacy. The Study is dedicated to finding a path to achieve this goal.
The answer will come from several steps that are fundamental to The Study. Missouri has no standards for personal financial literacy. The Study must develop such standards out of professional understandings and extensive dialogue among educators, business, labor groups, and citizens. The Study must demonstrate how these standards can be learned starting with kindergarten and continuing through to high school graduation. The Study must demonstrate to educators concerned with over-burdened classrooms that economic and personal financial skills and understandings can be gained within currently allocated time provided for math, reading, writing, social studies, business, family and consumer sciences, and agricultural classes.
The Study will consist of statements of standards for economics and personal finance at each grade level along with examples demonstrating how effective integration into existing curricular areas can strengthen and improve classroom performance. It will point the way to more effective teacher certification providing time-tested choices for teacher training and use of new materials to bring increased relevance to the classroom. It will suggest funding methods to assist schools to achieve more then is currently possible. It will empower teachers to use the full range of their creativity to help our young people grow in powerful ways.
Years of experience with thousands of Missouri teachers in economic and personal finance education have constructed a network of success in classroom after classroom. But the task is too large and the good results too limited. By combining knowledge of our current best practices with the insights and concerns of educators and citizens, The Study will point the way towards a better future for our young people and all Missourians.