It is hard to dispute the fact that financial literacy is important to help people navigate effectively through the channels of life.  Improving knowledge undoubtedly helps people to make better informed financial decisions.  The Department of Defense recognized that financial education was important to overall readiness since financial stress can detract servicemembers from performing missions and may have a negative influence on their overall well-being.  As a result, all military branches require financial readiness programs and make them available to servicemembers free of change.    

There has been a modest effort to reach military children through youth financial readiness programs on military installations. You can find some of these programs on the Military Saves Youth Resources page.   Unfortunately programs such as these are not far reaching nationwide.  Generally speaking, parents may find it hard to teach their children positive financial management and literacy skills when they themselves are struggling with financial matters.   

Luckily there are programs available to youth, outside of school, that can provide those necessary financial teachings.  To name a few, they include:

Jump$tart is a coalition of organizations dedicated to improving the financial literacy of pre-kindergarten through college age youth and strives to prepare them for life long successful financial decision-making.  Jump$tart started tracking the financial literacy of high school students in 1997 through a survey that revealed the average high school senior was unable to pass a simple personal financial test.  Every two year survey conducted afterward yielded a downward trend, with the most recent survey in 2008 producing the lowest results.

 The National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) is another organization that has been addressing financial literacy since 1984 using the NEFE High School Financial Planning Program. The program has touched more than 5 million students, youth organizations, U.S. military installations (worldwide) and community programs throughout the country.

The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) to date has worked with nearly 350,000 youth across the U.S. and world.  NFTE's mission is to provide youth from low income families with the tools to accelerate their personal plans for success.  Lessons include concepts of finance, marketing, opportunity recognition with all having ties back to core math and literacy skills.

At least eight states have recognized the value of including personal finance within a school's curriculum.  Idaho, Illinois, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, New York, Texas and Utah currently require personal finance in the classroom.  Virginia officials recently decided financial education courses should be included in school curriculums, however, that decision was contested among educators and as well as parents. 

So, why isn't personal finance taught in schools across the country?  When more requirements are added, youth lose free electives.  School administrators claim the cost to implement the programs is costly.  There's also the win-win proposal of molding the content into already structured courses such as math or economics and adding "how to balance a checkbook" and understanding "the laws of supply and demand". 

During this global financial crisis, it is essential for children to learn personal finance.  Financial skills shape their future because it helps with dealing, handling and managing money on a daily basis.  It is equally important for parents to learn and practice positive money management behavior and to become positive role models for their children.  For now, the financial programs available outside of school and the information children learn from their parents will have to do until more schools get on the financial literacy bandwagon.