Youth need more teaching on spending money wisely

Ask teen-agers where they get most of their information about finance, and the majority say it's from their parents.

But if you dig a bit deeper, a survey by the National Consumers League found, the bulk of those conversations involve kids asking their parents for money to spend.

"A lot of parents just aren't prepared to teach their children money skills," said league spokeswoman Holly Anderson. "That's why there's growing support for getting financial literacy training into the schools."

Yet just 14 states mandate even limited money skills education, according to the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy in Washington, D.C.

JumpStart has been working for the past five years to draw attention to the problem, mainly through events connected with each April's Financial Literacy for Youth Month.

"We feel we've built awareness," said Dara Duguay, executive director of the coalition. "And we have wonderful curriculums available through the clearinghouse on our Web site. But if you can't create a place for it in the school system, it's pointless."

Many of the coalition's 130 members -- from corporations to nonprofit associations and teacher and youth groups -- are working to get more educational materials to students, often by donating money and their own time to do it.

The First Hope Bank, for example, is underwriting the introduction of the "Common Cents Financial Literacy Program" for five public and private elementary schools in western New Jersey.

First Hope president Norman E. Beatty said, "We saw the program as an opportunity to reach out in a way that can have meaningful consequences for the bank and the community."

Many people, regardless of age, don't have good money skills, Beatty pointed out.