The Council for Economic Education’s 2016 Survey of the States shows that Connecticut’s public school system has made no progress over the last several years in meeting benchmarks for financial literacy education.
The Council for Economic Education (CEE), a nonprofit focusing on the economic and financial education of American students from kindergarten through high school, performs a national review every two years, collecting data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
According to this year’s survey, Connecticut continues to meet just a single benchmark — inclusion of personal finance in its K-12 education standards. That is one of the five measures the CEE employs to ascertain the strength of a state’s financial education program.
The report said Connecticut still misses on the remaining four measures:
- the requirement that such standards be implemented by school districts;
- the requirement to offer a high school course in personal finance;
- the requirement that students take such a course; and
- the requirement for standardized testing on the subject matter.
Christopher Lee, president of Connecticut Jump$tart – a non-profit advocate for financial literacy – said Connecticut’s failure to meet four of the Council’s five benchmark requirements is significant because research shows they are the main driver of economics and personal finance being taught in schools.
“Connecticut Jump$tart did its own survey of high schools last year and we found that, while a large number of high schools offer a personal finance class, about 78 percent of our students graduate without ever having taken one, ” he said. “Some students aren’t interested, others can’t fit it into their schedules and still others find that there are a limited number of available seats in these classes. So state requirements do matter.”
