Photo by Nancy Royden. Left, Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot, Maryland state delegate from Baltimore City Jill Carter and Maryland state delegate from Carroll County Susan W. Krebs all spoke Feb. 24 in Annapolis in support of legislation that would require all Maryland students to take a course in financial literacy before graduation.

Published on: Wednesday, March 10, 2010

By Nancy Royden

By Nancy Royden

Special to The Sentinel

Students, parents, business leaders and politicians met Feb. 24 in Annapolis to call for passage of legislation mandating financial literacy education for all students before they graduate from high school.

"The time is now for Maryland to become the fourth state in the nation to require a standalone course in financial literacy as a high school graduation requirement," Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot said from his Calvert Street office. "I believe that fewer people would be drowning in debt today and facing the loss of their homes, their credit ratings and their financial security if they had been armed with a financial education. We don't have time to wait."

Franchot's office was filled to capacity with press, students and others who spoke about their support of financial literacy education. State delegates Jill Carter, Curt Anderson, Ana Sol Gutierrez and Melvin Stukes sponsor House Bill 764. Financial literacy legislation has been crossfiled and introduced in Senate Bill 264, sponsored by senators C. Anthony Muse of Prince George's County, Richard F. Colburn and Katherine Klausmeier.

Franchot said debt, budgets and credit are things people of all ages need to understand.

"Often, the parents are as clueless as the kids when it comes to financial literacy," he said.

Kevin Murley, a teacher at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, spoke during the press conference in the comptroller's office.

Murley said students are not getting information they need about budgets, credit and how the financial world can affect them. If students do not understand the importance of paying off credit card balances completely and on time, they can run into huge financial problems.

Merry Eisner, vice president for legislation for the Maryland Parent Teacher Association, said during the press conference that achieving in life means balancing a checkbook, and having a good grasp of mortgage information is important.

Scot Stark, president and chief executive officer of the Financial Planning Association of America, said now is the time to increase financial literacy among the state's students.

"Rarely has there been a more urgent and vital need for financial literacy in our state and for its youth than now. This financial literacy legislation represents the first step in that commitment and the benefits of passing it would only be exceeded by the drawbacks of not doing so," he said.

Christine Feldmann, spokeswoman for the comptroller's office, said Franchot met Aaron Moore, a student at Overlea High School in Baltimore County. Moore said he supports the idea of mandatory financial literacy education.

"If everybody has the knowledge they need, then they'll be able to avoid financial tragedy, like foreclosure and credit card debt and that, in the end, helps everybody," Moore said.

According to the comptroller's office, some people argue financial literacy issues can be integrated into pre-existing courses, and others say more than that is needed to teach students about its importance.

"With the number of courses young people have to choose from, if officials don't make the class mandatory, students aren't going to take it and take it seriously,” said Allen Cox, a retired teacher and head of the Maryland Coalition for Financial Literacy. "We can't afford to let our students leave high school without basic financial knowledge."