Jump$tart finds soon-to-be high school grads are not prepared to handle their own finances

<p>WASHINGTON-The Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy released a study last week that portrayed high school seniors as falling further into ignorance about personal finances. The 45-minute examination of 4,024 12th graders in 183 schools across the country found that they know even less about credit cards, retirement funds, insurance, and other personal finance basics than they did five years ago, while more policymakers are taking notice. Overall, participants in the 2002 survey answered only 50.2% of the questions in the survey correctly, an `F’ according to the typical grade scale. In 2000, scores also dropped to 51.9% from 57.3% in 1997. Policy and lawmakers in Washington are beginning to pay attention to the falling scores with the Senate Banking Committee holding financial literacy hearings in February with key financial regulatory officials as witnesses. Additionally, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which included provisions to bolster financial education in addition to education in general. Other findings in the survey: Almost 75% of students have a savings and/or checking account. Those who did not scored lower on the exam (46.1%) than those who have a savings and/or checking account (about 50%). While the number of students with credit cards is increasing (7.7% in 1997 to 12.1% in 2002), the number of students who use their cards is decreasing (67.8% in 2002 versus 70.8% in 1997). Additionally, fewer students are using their parents’ credit cards. The average score for Caucasian students was 53.7%, while Asian Americans scored 50.6%, Hispanics score came in at 44.8%, African Americans scored 42.1%, and Native Americans had an overall score of 45.5%. Male students fared slightly better than female students (50.7% to 49.7%). The highest scores were in the mid-West and lowest in the South (53.5% to 48.6%). Jump$tart, founded in Washington, D.C. in 1997, is a nonprofit organization with 140 partners including federal agencies, universities, associations, and education program sponsors. The full survey is available at www.jumpstart.org under downloads.</p>