Laura Ewing President/CEO 1801 Allen Parkway, Houston, TX 77019 P: 713.655.1650 F: 713.655.1655 Laura@econ

1. Helping young people learn to think, choose, and make better • economic and financial choices in a global economy Laura Ewing President/CEO 1801 Allen Parkway, Houston, TX 77019 P: 713.655.1650 F: 713.655.1655 Laura@economicstexas.org www.economicstexas.org WWW.smartertexas.org

2. The Texas Council on Economic Education (TCEE) Teaches Teachers Who Teach Students Who Are the Future of Texas --John Anderson, TCEE Board Member

3. Staff Development PlayfulEconomics • Economics • Entrepreneurship • Career/Business • Financial Literacy

4. Three Student Programs Directly Reach 27,000 students annually Stock Market Game™ Economics Challenge Personal Financial Literacy (PFL) Challenge

5. Why care about economic and financial literacy education?

7. Why educate students how to budget? (The following statistics published May 21, 2011 by www.economywatch.com) • Total U.S. consumer debt in 2010: • nearly $2.4 trillion • $7,800 debt per person • 2 – 2.5 million Americans seek the help of a credit counselor each year to avoid bankruptcy. On average, clients seeking financial counseling were • $43,000 in debt of which $20,000 was consumer debt • $8,500 was revolving debt (such as credit card debt).

8. Why is there a need to teach personal financial literacy? • “Student Loan Debt Exceeds Credit Card Debt in U.S.” —September 10, 2010 USA Today article • “The total student loan debt is approximately $850 billion.” • Consumers owed $828 billion in revolving credit, including credit card debt, according to July 2010 seasonally adjusted numbers given in Federal Reserve Bank report

9. Why encourage young people to save? • Elliott and Beverly in the paper The Role of Savings and Wealth in Reducing Wilt Between Expectations And College Attendance (2010) state that - • when a savings account is set up for students, they are 4 times more likely to go to college. • if students have a savings account in their name, they are 7 times more likely to go to college.

10. “I do know that kids have even fewer experiences with money than ever before. The days of sending lunch money and ice cream money are gone. Everything is put into an account for the kids at school. Then all they see is their parents using plastic even to pay for a drink at Sonic! Children truly don’t have a sense of money and using it wisely for their needs.” —Valerie Johse, Retired Elementary Math Specialist in Pearland ISD • $51 billion worth of fast food was charged to credit cards in 2006, compared to $33.2 billion the previous year.

11. What if… • Texas had had Personal Financial Literacy education for the last 30 years? • Could a Smarter Texas have reduced the impact of the recession? • Helping young people learn to think, choose, and make better • economic and financial choices in a global economy

12. How Do We Build A Smarter Texas? One Teacher One Student One Classroom One School…At A Time

13. A FINANCIAL LITERACY PROGRAM SPONSORED BY Helping young people learn to think, choose, and make better economic and financial choices in a global economy www.economicstexas.org www.smartertexas.org

14. The Smarter Texas Program is made possible in part by the Council for Economic Education through funding from the United States Department Education Office of Innovation and Improvement.

15. ? So, what does Smarter Texas offer? • PFL Staff Development for senior Economics & Career/Technical Teachers Concern: too little/too late • Introduction of PFL at the elementary level • greater depth and breadth at middle school • and then refinement at the high school level • Support for the new requirements that: • K to 8 mathematics educators incorporate PFL in their instruction • Senior economics educators teach students about alternative methods of saving for college or trade school

16. Resources for lessons? • Financial Fitness For Life • Spiraled Curriculum • As funding available, each teacher receives $83.50 bundle • Kindergarten – Grade 2 • Grades 3 – 5 • Grades 6 – 8 • Grades 9 – 12

17. Additional Resources for lessons • Hands On Banking • Financing Your Future

18. FLIGHT • More Intensive PFL Content Training • Speakers on: • Investments • Money and Banking • Investment in College • Federal Reserve Bank • Rent vs. Own Home • Credit Rating and Building • Insurance Financial Literacy Ignites Greater Horizons for Tomorrow

19. TCEE and Opportunity Texas Next Goal: Smarter Texans Save Long Term Goal for students: • Encourage students to save money for college, trade school, emergencies • Work with Opportunity Texas to choose one area of Texas to provide matching funding for student savings accounts. • Change student behavior from just receiving financial literacy to developing financial capability and asset building

20. What Other Programs Does the Texas Council on Economic Education Offer the Students and Teachers of Texas?

21. Staff Development Annually Reaches1500 teachers and 250,000 new students who learn about: PlayfulEconomics • Economics • Entrepreneurship • Career/Business • Financial Literacy

22. Virtual Economics Training • VE 4.0 CD/Pin Drive with 1400 + lessons • Training in 106 Texas districts with at least one of lowest performing schools in nation (others invited) • Training extended to other interested districts • Funded by State Farm and Council for Economic Education

23. Economics Challenge • Fall and Spring Online Testing In Micro, Macro and International Economics • Adam Smith Division 2nd place national champs Bellaire HS 2010 • David Ricardo Division 3rd place national champs Plano HS 2010 • State competition all online this year

24. Personal Financial Literacy Challenge • Premier Challenge: spring 2011 with campus online testing • “State Play-Offs” with 20 teams and 10 teachers invited April 2011 • 2011-2012 fall and spring online challenge will determine state finalist • State Competition all online this year

25. Texas Regional Competitions El Paso Sponsored by FirstLight • 10 week simulation • Grades 4 through 12 • Teams of 2 to 5 • Virtual $100,000 to invest • 25,000 Texas students participate annually • Legislative Challenge • Research indicates improved math scores on standardized tests • $10 per team

26. State and national writing competition • Must be a SMG participant • Writing prompts require planning, critical thinking skills and analysis of lessons learned from the simulation • 2009 Texas had the national winner

27. www.economicstexas.org • Lesson Plans • Books written by Texas educators integrating economics and financial literacy with math and language arts at theelementary, middle and high school levels

28. Texas History Through Economics

29. Economics For Educators, Rev. Ed.Robert Hodgin, Ph.D., Economics Professor at UHCL

30. Helping young people learn to think, choose, and make better • economic and financial choices in a global economy Laura Ewing President/CEO 1801 Allen Parkway, Houston, TX 77019 P: 713.655.1650 F: 713.655.1655 Laura@economicstexas.org www.economicstexas.org WWW.smartertexas.org