Survey: Financial Education Expands, but Many PA High Schools Still Offer No Courses

HARRISBURG, Pa., April 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- More Pennsylvania high schools are requiring students to study personal finance in order to graduate, according to a new survey, "The Status of Financial Education in Pennsylvania High Schools 2009."

The survey, conducted by the Penn State University Survey Research Center, was commissioned by the Department of Banking's Office of Financial Education to identify the extent to which personal finance courses are being offered and required for graduation in Pennsylvania.

The survey first was conducted in 2007. Several findings from the 2009 survey are considered significant:

• Forty-four Pennsylvania high schools now require stand-alone courses in personal finance for graduation, an increase of 24 schools since 2007.
• Eighty-five percent of high schools offer some type of integrated or stand-alone course, while 15 percent of schools offer no personal finance instruction. This ratio remains virtually unchanged since the 2007 survey.
• Personal finance teachers are often "lone rangers" in their schools and districts: 83 percent of the schools report that stand-alone courses are taught by a single teacher.
• Personal finance teachers are resourceful. More than half use guest speakers from their community and more than one-third use no textbook at all, relying instead on a variety of other resources. One-and-a-half times as many teachers are using www.moneysbestfriend.com, the Web site of the Pennsylvania Office of Financial Education, as were in 2007.
• There are signs that progress is being made to improve financial education: one in four schools report efforts are underway to increase the extent to which personal finance is taught -- up from one in five in 2007, and respondents in 29 school districts report that personal finance is being considered as an addition to their graduation requirement.

"We strongly believe that students need financial education to help them make solid, well-informed financial decisions as adults to the benefit of themselves, their families and communities, and Pennsylvania," said Mary Rosenkrans, director of the Office of Financial Education. "We continue to study and advocate for financial education programs across the state and look forward to reporting more progress in future surveys."

More information, including the full text of the 2007 and 2009 surveys, can be found at www.moneysbestfriend.com/default.aspx?id=351.

The Office of Financial Education works to help Pennsylvania's teachers incorporate age-appropriate personal finance principles into the reading, math and other subjects they're already teaching; show Pennsylvania's employers how to provide personal finance tips, tools and training to their employees in ways that complement their business objectives and boost their bottom lines; and connect existing community-based efforts, and help more community-based organizations offer high-quality financial education and counseling throughout the state.

For more information, visit www.moneysbestfriend.com.

Media contact: Ed Novak, 717-783-4721

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Banking