1 / 15

Should High School Have Financial Classes?

Should High School Have Financial Classes? . Zach Atchison, Alex Laurin, Jake Klinck, Jarrod Britton ARC-5th 18 Dec. 2013. Introduction. Students graduate without knowledge of personal finances Taxes, get student loans, apply for mortgages, balance a checkbook, and budget an account

lena
Download Presentation

Should High School Have Financial Classes?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Should High School Have Financial Classes? Zach Atchison, Alex Laurin, Jake Klinck, Jarrod Britton ARC-5th 18 Dec. 2013

  2. Introduction • Students graduate without knowledge of personal finances • Taxes, get student loans, apply for mortgages, balance a checkbook, and budget an account • Its the School’s Job • Students need to know such things before they use them

  3. Introduction • 84% of students would like to take a personal finance class (Bortz) • Students would also rather take a class and learn now than later (Bortz)

  4. Research Questions • Why is this not taught in economics? • Why are classes like these not required? • Does Grand Blanc offer classes like these? • If Grand Blanc offers classes like these, what is the general curriculum?

  5. Research • The Tartan • 25% of teenagers do not know how to do basic finances • Students don’t know how to do balance a checkbook or correctly use a credit card • Interview with Mr. Belcher • Already required to take so many courses • Health, gym, class of 2016 takes 2 years of foreign language, computer credit

  6. Research • Learning how to apply for financial aid could be very useful. • Taxes are done by professionals • Interview with Mr. Hentes • GB offers life management and accounting • Accounting deals with numbers • Life management deals with balancing finances, future planning, time management • Not part of econ because it is more micro rather than macro.

  7. Research • “Why High Schoolers don’t know how to manage their money.” • Only 13 states have passed laws requiring students to take finance classes • Mastercard says 64% of parents are worried about the decisions their college bound kids make • The problem is new, possibly has been buried under all the existing ones • Possibly should be taught before high school

  8. Our Survey • We gave this survey to 20 high school graduates How helpful do you think a personal management class in high school would have been for your transition into adulthood? These types of classes include learning how to do your taxes, applying for financial aid for college, and to apply for loans. Make a mark next to one of the choices below: Very helpful ____ 10 Somewhat helpful ____ 9 Neutral ____ 1 Not at all helpful ___ 0

  9. Results • Half of the participants would have found it beneficial • None said that it would be a waste • Obviously would be a good class to have

  10. Our Other Survey • We also surveyed 45 students with a different question Have you taken any of these classes below? Circle all that apply. Life management Accounting (any at all) Do you feel prepared to go into the world and do adult things such as: Circle all that apply: Doing your taxes Applying for financial aid for college Applying for loans Balance a checkbook Budget your money

  11. Graphs

  12. Results • 38 students did not take a financial class • 25 students did only knew how to perform one or none of the financial tasks listed • Correlation between the amount of finance classes students took and the number of items they would be able to perform • 2 students took both classes and 2 students knew how to perform all five tasks

  13. Conclusion • Obviously this is a problem • 56% of students surveyed knew how to perform one item or no items • Based on all our research students do not know how to do finances • Consequences • Timely to figure all of it out • Debt • Bankrupt • Repossessions

  14. Recommendations • Create a class that teaches how to: • get student loans, apply for mortgages, balance a checkbook, and budget an account • 1 semester class • Its is not expected that the class would be required initially • Over time administrators should notice how helpful it is • Maybe it should be taught earlier than high school (Bortz)

  15. Works Cited Belcher, Chris. Personal interview. 4 Dec. 2013. Bortz, Daniel. "Why Most High Schoolers Don't Know How to Manage Their Money."US News RSS. US News RSS, 9 Oct. 2012. Web. 08 Dec. 2013. Hentes, John. Personal interview. 4 Dec. 2013. "High School Students Must Be Taught Basic Finances." The Tartan Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.

More Related