Our nation’s recession has put the spotlight on personal finances, and many schools across the country have opened their own banks to teach students lessons in financial planning. When students don’t learn these skills early, the consequences can follow them through college and the rest of their lives.
According to Sallie Mae, “84% of undergraduates had at least one credit card and the average was 4.6 credit cards per student. The average balance was $3,173. Despite the credit crunch, students’ credit card debt continues to rise as more students rely on credit cards than ever before and debt has even been linked to suicide among students.” Another study by the Project on Student Debt reports that “More than half of today’s college freshmen owe over $1,500 in credit card debt. In 1993, 1.3 percent of graduating seniors with student loans owed at least $40,000 (in 2004 dollars). In 2004, 7.7 percent owed $40,000 or more.”
[Sources: http://kids-money.suite101.com/article.cfm/credit-card-debt-and-college-students]
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/general/2006-02-22-student-loans-usat_x.htm
This is why LifeBound’s new book, MAKING THE MOST OF HIGH SCHOOL, includes financial literacy exercises in every chapter and one chapter devoted to this topic. We also help students create an 8-year plan starting the freshmen year which includes budgeting. To receive a review copy, call our toll free # 1.877.737.8510 or email contact@lifebound.com
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USA Today
By Katharine Lackey, USA TODAYWhen students at Carter High School in Strawberry Plains, Tenn., forget their lunch money, they don’t have to worry about going hungry.Instead, they wander over to one of the five tellers who work at the student-run bank, where they can withdraw money from their savings accounts or fill out short applications for a $5 loan, all without leaving the building, says Lynn Raymond, a banking and finance teacher at the school.“We’re easing them into learning about borrowing money and the responsibilities that go along with that,” Raymond says of the experience students receive at the bank, which opened Feb. 16 in partnership with First Century Bank.“It’s just so important because so many people get in trouble financially,” she says.Students across the USA are increasingly getting hands-on experience about the financial sector through banks operating in high schools, and sometimes even in elementary schools.The first in-school bank opened in 2000 in Milwaukee and today there are several dozen, says Luke Reynolds, chief of outreach and program development at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. To view the entire article visithttp://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-03-31-schoolbanks_N.htm
