Education Secretary Wants FinLit Ed--No Press Coverage

On November 8, 2011, US Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan highlighted the importance of personal finance education in our K-12 schools and colleges at a meeting of  President Obama's Advisory Council on Financial Capability.  At the meeting, the Secretary of Education expressed powerful opinions on the need to have personal finance taught in our classrooms.  Here are a few of the things he is reported to have said:

I think the challenge we face now is that we don't have a financially literate population.

As important as reading and math and social studies and science, I think today more than ever financial literacy has to be a part of that.

To continue to have a population that is relatively illiterate in these matters I think has real negative consequences for our democracy.

If we don't do things differently we're going to perpetuate these problems.  This is not a place where we need to get a little bit better.  We've got to get a lot better, and we've got to get better faster.

I always think you have to start young.  So if this is just one course, half a semester [or] semester senior year, [it's] definitely late in the game.

I just really encourage the council to be extraordinarily bold, and to push us very, very hard.  Again, there are some problems where I think we're pretty close to solving them, we just need to tinker, and this is not one of those.  We have to get so much better.  We have a state of crisis here.  We have and emergency, and I feel this tremendous sense of urgency.

According to the press, Secretary Duncan noted that the lack of financial literacy was related to the mortgage crisis and low savings rate.  Secretary Duncan indicated that many individuals are not capable of making long term investment and retirement plans.  He stated that given dramatic shift in our society away from employer funded defined-benefit plans to self-funded and self-directed retirement savings plans like a 401k, there was increased urgency for this type of education in the classroom.


He noted that many teachers are not prepared to teach personal finance classes and that studies show they are not comfortable teaching these personal finance concepts.  He also explained that the Department of Education has little power today to mandate personal finance education in our schools today.


These are very important and powerful statements by a leading voice in education.  So who covered this event?  The New York Times?  The Washington Post?  The Chronicle of Higher Education?


None of these organizations apparently sent a report to this event, despite a media notice of the meeting and its purpose.  See:  http://www.ed.gov/news/media-advisories/education-secretary-deputy-treasury-secretary-highlight-importance-financial-e

So who reported on this important event--which to my knowledge is the most specific and in-depth statements made by the Secretary of Education on the topic of personal finance education in our schools?  Financial Planning magazine--a publication for financial advisers.  See: http://www.financial-planning.com/news/education-secretary-duncan-financial-literacy-education-2675914-1.html

And Yahoo News is the only other organization reporting the details of this meeting, but even this report is based on the Financial Planning article.  http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/duncan-calls-personal-finance-lessons-starting-kindergarten-134427341.html


How can we solve the problem of the lack of personal finance education in our schools and colleges if the national media fails to report on these very important comments by the Secretary of Education?

GDP up 2.5% but....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203554104577001513470146048.html?mod=ITP_pageone_1

I really want to be excited about the third quarter GDP results that were released yesterday, but the details of the report gives me concerns.  The economy grew by 2.5% in the third quarter which is a big jump over the paltry 0.7% rate experienced earlier this year.

Although 2.5% growth is good--it is not good enough to make a substantial dent in our unemployment rate.  To  have sustained employment growth you need the GDP to grow at a  rate of at least 3%.  Consumer spending makes up 70% of our economy.  In order to have sustained economic growth we also need to see an increase in the income of our citizens. More income means that Americans can spend more and grow our economy.

So what did this report show?  Consumer spending was up 1.54% over the quarter.  That is great news--it means that 70% of our economy is growing.  However, other data in this report suggests that this growth in consumer spending may not be sustainable.  Inflation adjusted after tax income dropped by 1.7% in the quarter--the first drop in income since the fourth quarter of 2009.  In addition the savings rate (savings as a percentage of disposable income) dropped to 4.1%--it's lowest level since early 2010.  So what does this mean?  Consumers bought more goods in the third quarter even though their income dropped.  With income dropping how were consumers able to spend more?  Simple--they dipped into their savings to pay for this spending increase.

The only way to have a sustained recovery is through increases in after tax income.  If income goes up people can spend more.  Let's all hope that this is just a minor, one-time, data blip and not the foreshadowing a more serious problem in our future.