Suzanne McGee of The Fiscal Times is a proponent of financial literacy education, both at home and in our schools. After a media luncheon with Nan J. Morrison, CEE president & CEO, McGee followed up with her blog post on what she learned from teaching “Wall Street 101,” and how we can do better for our nation’s youth.

“It isn’t about giving kids rules, Morrison points out: Just telling them to save 10 percent of their income is about as useful as telling an overweight child to eat less and exercise more. What helps more is teaching that child to make healthy choices and discover the rewards of physical activity. Similarly, helping a child to become fiscally fit means giving them tools to make sensible decisions on a day-to-day basis, not just putting aside an arbitrary percentage of their income.”

You can read McGee’s full post on The Fiscal Times here.

POSTED: March 12, 2013 | BY: Leslie Rasimas | TAGS: CEO, economics, Financial Literacy, parents, personal finance, Research, Survey of the States

Ward Cerny, board member of the Colorado Council for Economic Education (CCEE), is featured in the Denver Business Journal, and it is recognition well-deserved.

Cerny has an impressive background in international investments, mergers and acquisitions, but his current work as an economic and personal finance educator is perhaps the most important.

“The irony of economics is the people who need it the most are the least likely to receive that education,” Cerny said. “[CCEE's] mission is to make that a key part of curriculum. The main lesson we want to teach people is the more fundamental lesson that economics is the science of decision making in a scarce world.”

Since 2008, Cerny has taught two three-month, economics-oriented classes at Columbine High School through the CCEE each year, competing against students in the Stock Market Game, now called Stock Market Experience.

“It’s always fun when the kids try to beat me,” Cerny said. “One kid would put his entire portfolio in Apple and blow my balanced portfolio out of the water.” Cerny tries to teach his students about the long-term strategy, not just a three-month one.

Read the full article here.

POSTED: March 11, 2013 | BY: Leslie Rasimas | TAGS: CEE Board, Councils & Centers, economics, Financial Literacy, personal finance, Students

For the past 15 years, Education Update has honored women who achieve extraordinary things throughout their lives. As diverse as these women are, they have a shared value of education, and they care deeply about future generations.

Nan J. Morrison, CEE President & CEO, is one of Education Update’s 2013 Women Shaping History award winners.

Morrison speaks on her inspirations, career challenges and resolutions, accomplishments and future goals.

“I am working to help K-12 children acquire the skills to make informed decisions, think critically about what those decisions entail, and create their own paths to fruitful lives,” said Morrison.

You can read more about Nan J. Morrison and her work in the 2013 March/April issue of Education Update, page 11, available here.

POSTED: March 8, 2013 | BY: Leslie Rasimas | TAGS: CEO, education

Should we require our nation’s teenagers to pass a financial literacy quiz in order to get a license? Jean Chatzky proposed this question in her blog, and now Adam Levin has delved deeper into what this could mean for our country, and how we could begin to implement the requirement.

Weighing in on the issue are Nan J. Morrison, President & CEO of CEE, and Annamaria Lusardi, Denit Trust Distinguished Scholar in Economics and Accountancy, The George Washington University School of Business, and CEE Board Member.

“It is a low-cost, low-barrier option for getting a student interested, and they have an incentive to do so,” Nan J. Morrison says about the proposal.

Lusardi proposes that potential questions should address car ownership and insurance.

Read the full story here. Let us know what you think in the comments below.

POSTED: March 7, 2013 | BY: Leslie Rasimas | TAGS: CEE Board, CEO, Financial Literacy, personal finance, Quiz

When CEE released the Survey of the States in early 2012, we supplemented the printed report with a website dedicated the state of financial and economic education, www.surveyofthestates.com.

Principal Julie Miller of Stoughton, MA, used statistics from CEE’s website when she went before the school committee to ask for a required personal finance course at Stoughton High School. Read more…

POSTED: February 19, 2013 | BY: Leslie Rasimas | TAGS: 9-12, Financial Literacy, personal finance, Survey of the States

Illinois has placed a high priority on the financial literacy of its students, as it was one of the first states to implement rigorous economic and personal finance standards. This semester, its largest city continues to raise the bar for school systems nationwide: Chicago Public Schools (CPS) introduces a dedicated personal finance course for 12th-graders with resources developed by CEE.

Nan J. Morrison, President & CEO of CEE, outlines what this means for CPS and our nation’s students in her latest blog post on Huffington Post Education, “Chicago Public Schools Raise the Bar for Financial Education.”

Read the full blog post here.

POSTED: February 11, 2013 | BY: Leslie Rasimas | TAGS: 9-12, CEO, Financial Literacy, partners, personal finance, school program, Students, Survey of the States, teachers