On matters of personal finance, education is a two-way street - The Boston Globe

On matters of personal finance, education is a two-way street - The Boston Globe

On matters of personal finance, education is a two-way street

By Michelle Singletary

Washington Post / May 9, 2010

The financial teaching grade is in for teachers — and it’s not good.

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SOURCE: Bloomberg News

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison surveyed K-12 educators and not surprisingly most instructors don’t think they are suitably trained to teach their students the basics of personal finance. The study, “Teachers’ Background & Capacity to Teach Personal Finance,’’ was funded by the National Endowment for Financial Education.

The teachers were asked to assess their instructional competency in six areas: income and careers; planning and money management; credit and debt; financial responsibility and decision-making; saving and investing; and risk management and insurance.

Less than 20 percent of the surveyed educators felt they were “very competent’’ in any of the six areas. No wonder: Barely one-third of them had taken a college