United States
See also: Financial Literacy Curriculum See also: Financial Literacy MonthThe US Treasury established its Office of Financial Education in 2002; and the US Congress established the Financial Literacy and Education Commission under the Financial Literacy and Education Improvement Act in 2003. The Commission published its National Strategy on Financial Literacy in 2006. The Jump$tart Coalition has championed personal financial literacy in the United States since as early as 1995.
While many organizations have supported the financial literacy movement, they may differ on their definitions of financial literacy. In a report by the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, the authors called for a consistent definition of financial literacy by which financial literacy education programs can be judged. They defined financial literacy as “the ability to use knowledge and skills to manage financial resources effectively for a lifetime of financial well-being.”
The Council for Economic Education (CEE) conducted a 2009 Survey of the States and found that 44 states currently have K-12 personal finance education or guidelines in place. Due to differing criteria, the Jump$tart Coalition only considers 24 states to have a component of personal financial education required. Results from the Jump$tart Survey of Personal Financial Literacy indicate low levels of financial literacy among American youth.
Additionally, automobile finance companies and retailers provide consumer education through Americans Well-informed on Automobile Retailing Economics.
Also, Northern Illinois University started a campus-wide Financial Literacy Initiative in 2009 with a program called Financial Cents. Financial Cents provides college students at Northern Illinois University with the tools and knowledge needed to make sound financial decisions during their college careers as well as after they graduate. Other public and private universities across the United States have implemented similar financial literacy programs.
Read more about this topic: Financial Literacy
Famous quotes related to united states:
“The United States is a republic, and a republic is a state in which the people are the boss. That means us. And if the big shots in Washington don’t do like we vote, we don’t vote for them, by golly, no more.”
—Willis Goldbeck (1900–1979)
“In the United States all business not transacted over the telephone is accomplished in conjunction with alcohol or food, often under conditions of advanced intoxication. This is a fact of the utmost importance for the visitor of limited funds ... for it means that the most expensive restaurants are, with rare exceptions, the worst.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“The professional celebrity, male and female, is the crowning result of the star system of a society that makes a fetish of competition. In America, this system is carried to the point where a man who can knock a small white ball into a series of holes in the ground with more efficiency than anyone else thereby gains social access to the President of the United States.”
—C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)
“Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada are the horns, the head, the neck, the shins, and the hoof of the ox, and the United States are the ribs, the sirloin, the kidneys, and the rest of the body.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)
“In the United States, it is now possible for a person eighteen years of age, female as well as male, to graduate from high school, college, or university without ever having cared for, or even held, a baby; without ever having comforted or assisted another human being who really needed help. . . . No society can long sustain itself unless its members have learned the sensitivities, motivations, and skills involved in assisting and caring for other human beings.”
—Urie Bronfenbrenner (b. 1917)