| 16 November 2009

Truth be told we debated running with a much more tongue-in-cheek title on this one, but we stopped short. Let us explain:

The SEC has announced, in cooperation with FINRA, that "top executives" will swoop down on your public schools this Friday to teach a lesson about saving, spending and other financial topics. So here we, are ranking well below other countries in math and science and -- wait, are we? Ranking below other countries in math and science, that is.

Let's see, according to the U.S. Department of Education, 15-year-old U.S. citizens rank 21st out of the 30 OECD countries in Science. In mathematics our young 15-year-old prodigies rank 25th out of 30. So yes, you might say we rank. Low.

But keep in mind this is math and science literacy -- not "financial literacy." There's not even a ranking for that one yet. But since you asked, 66% of high school students fail a basic economics test each year, according to the OECD.

So here we are ranking well below other developed countries in math and science and offering precious little in terms of finacial education and yet, the United Kingdom (which consistently ranks above the U.S. in scores for math and science, by the way) has decided to add financial literacy to their core curriculum. In fact, economic literacy is set to become compulsory in the U.K. by 2011.

Australia, which also ranks above the U.S. in math and science, created a financial literacy foundation in 2005. Need we go on? Okay, we will. According to a report from the OECD financial education was available in 17 out of 31 countries and compulsory (!) in eight of those countries.

So, knowing all this, doesn't it seem odd that all we can seem to muster up is one day -- uh, excuse, us -- one afternoon of hoopla in a few schools? Now you can see the temptation. Headlines we tried: SEC Officials To Teach Financial Literacy to Your Kids -- Yes, That SEC. Or, FINRA Executives Take Friday Afternoon Off to Teach Kids How to Save Money They Don't Have. (Feel free to send us more headline suggestions.)

But we stopped short. Because to be clear, any effort to up the ante on financial literacy in America should be rewarded, not derided. It's just that the SEC is busy tracking down 23-year-old offenses and FINRA has its hands full with leveraged ETFs and Auction-Rate Securities. They can't run point on this one.

We are big believers in financial literacy. It's what we do. We teach people about money and the markets both here and on Learning Markets. If this PR effort raises awareness (with articles like this) then it's probably worth an afternoon off for a few executives. But it doesn't change the fact that we need a real agency with real money that can focus on the real issue, which is educating our youth early about money, spending and debt and to avoid more Great Recessions in the future. President Obama, sir, are you listening?

We're not saying it's going to be easy -- obesity rates continue to climb despite massive, well-funded nutritional education efforts in our schools. But something must be done and we'd like to see more focus on primary and secondary schools. The good news is we're all in this together and countries are opening their books and showing us how to do it. Here's how the Financial Services Authority in the U.K. does it. Here's how it's done in Malaysia.

Finally, do us a favor: if you or your child get to experience one of these events on Friday, please let us know how it goes. The list of participating schools is here.