Alarmed by statistics that suggest high school graduates lack a basic knowledge of money management, Carroll County school officials want to join a handful of other local districts that require students to pass a financial literacy course to graduate.
"Some kids think you don't have to pay a credit card back because their parents get the bill and pay it," Carroll Superintendent Charles I. Ecker said yesterday. "Kids are not learning about financial responsibility [because] a lot of parents don't know how to manage money."
Ecker said students need to learn how to analyze the costs and benefits of their spending decisions.
"Students are not getting this at home," said Ecker, who supports the graduation requirement that is expected to be proposed at tonight's school board meeting.
If board members agree, students starting ninth grade in 2007 will be required to pass a half-credit financial literacy course to graduate.
Carroll offers an elective course that teaches such concepts as money management, consumer rights and responsibilities, credit, savings and investing.
In Maryland, Baltimore, Harford, St. Mary's and Talbot counties require students to take a financial literacy course.
Nationally, 14 states, including Virginia, require a financial literacy course to graduate. Maryland and the District of Columbia don't have such a requirement, said Laura Levine, executive director of the Jumpstart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy.
"About one in five students gets a personal finance course" during high school, said Levine, whose organization surveys high school seniors every other year to gauge their financial aptitude.
A sample question from this year's survey - distributed to 5,775 high school seniors in 37 states asks students:
"Matt and Eric are two young men. Each has a good credit history. They work at the same company and make approximately the same salary. Matt has borrowed $6,000 to take a foreign vacation. Eric has borrowed $6,000 to buy a car. Who is likely to pay the lowest finance charge?
a) Matt will pay less because people who travel overseas are better risks.
b) They will both pay the same because they have almost identical financial backgrounds.
c) Eric will pay less because the car is collateral for the loan.
d) They will both pay the same because the rate is set by law."
