“We need to teach them how their money is spent, how to invest money and how to leverage money.”

Timothy DeFoor, Pennsylvania’s auditor general, is turning his office’s focus to the state’s high school classrooms. He has been visiting schools to promote initiatives to improve financial literacy education.

It is an important mission, and he is thankfully not alone: the state Senate passed legislation to add a required financial literacy class to high school curricula.

“It’s a topic that students realize the value of and enjoy talking about and learning about it,” Jessica Endlich, a former high school principal and founder of a nonprofit organization that promotes financial literacy in schools, told a reporter for Pittsburgh-based Tribune-Review.

Students in the pilot classes learn about interest rates and how to buy a car, apply for a mortgage or pay for college.

“They come to realize that financial literacy will help them and play a key role in their future financial decisions,” Martin Hickey, who teaches financial literacy courses at a Western Pennsylvania high school, told the Tribune-Review.

We are glad many students recognize the value in learning about financial literacy – because these skills will help them make better-informed decisions in the future, at key moments of their lives. We hope the state Legislature’s debate on this requirement produces a clearly needed improvement to Pennsylvania’s schools.

–Williamsport Sun Gazette