Programs that promote economic understanding among Arkansas’ schoolchildren are not new, but they are proliferating as widespread financial illiteracy is recognized as a barrier to economic development.
Long a mission for nonprofit organizations like Junior Achievement and Economics Arkansas, teaching economics to youngsters right down to the kindergarten level has also become the job of state government, the Federal Reserve Bank, Arkansas Capital Corp. Group – even a summer camp.
"It’s not what you make; it’s how you manage what you make," said Billy Britt, economic education specialist at the Little Rock branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. "And I think this is a lesson that we need to be developing in our children now. And this all goes with the entrepreneurial spirit.
"We need to be teaching our kids the backbone of the market system – how it works. And we can’t start too early with them."
While there are some economics questions embedded in statewide tests, the Arkansas Department of Education does not currently have any state graduation requirements for economic education, Director Kenneth James said.
"It’s something we’ve talked about at the state level. It’s not anything we’ve put into place yet at this point in time, but something that will continue to get, I think, some additional conversation.
"It gets down to a matter of where it’s going to be fitted into in terms of the academic schedule, and if kids have enough time to take it."
But many schools are nonetheless fighting financial ignorance. Economics Arkansas – founded as the Arkansas Council on Economic Education in 1962 – trains and provides resources to kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers in public and private schools in Arkansas.
Its executive director, former banker Sue Owens, said: "We’d love to see the Department of [Education] require a course in economics."
Britt, a former elementary school teacher and a former economics teacher with Economics Arkansas, and others at the Fed
also write lesson plans for and present workshops to teachers that incorporate economics at age-appropriate levels.
Britt detailed a couple of the programs that present economics for a younger audience.
One program that Britt wrote, "Piggybank Primer," seeks to teach children how to budget their money. Another, called "Your Paycheck," teaches students about taxes and withholding.
"You have to present it on their level," he said. "And they learn a lot more than you think."
The Arkansas Securities Department even offers financial incentives for providing financial education.
Other foot soldiers in the war on financial illiteracy are often recruited from the business community. Junior Achievement of Arkansas, for instance, sends businesspeople and professionals straight into classrooms.
Cheli Stafford, its director of education, said many businesses view their relationship with Junior Achievement as mutually beneficial.
"Businesses really buy into [volunteering] because there are future work forces in our classrooms. And so they really want to get involved and get their business out in front also because the kids and their parents have needs of local businesses," Stafford said.
Britt, who volunteers on his own time with JA, said he also views volunteering as a form of long-term economic development by helping cultivate a more financially literate work force.
Entrepreneurial Beginnings
JA Worldwide, which spread to Arkansas in 1987, began by focusing mainly on entrepreneurship, teaching after-school and high school students to produce, market and sell a product.
Other programs have followed suit. The Children International branch at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock offers a free summer camp that uses the same method to teach economics to public elementary school students participating in free and reduced-price lunch programs. Children International is a nonprofit that focuses on overcoming poverty primarily through child sponsorship.
This summer, "Mind Your Own Business" taught 150 first- through fifth-grade students how to make, market and sell a product.
"It gives them some practical skills that range from budgeting to what does it cost to make an item and what does it cost to sell it," said Cheryl Chapman, director of UALR Children International. "But it also gives them an opportunity to dream and think about how they could be part of starting their own business."
The students sold their products at the River Market in downtown Little Rock earlier this summer, earning $1,432 in net profit, which was donated to Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
"Mind Your Own Business," designed by Paula Rogers, just marked its fifth year as the central program for UALR Children International’s annual summer camp.
The program has been so well received by students and parents that the organization has started another career readiness program, "Life Links," which allows high school students to shadow business professionals. The program also teaches workshops such as "Dress for Success."
Another byproduct that has resulted from the success of "Mind Your Own Business" is a program called "Kids Biz," which integrates economic concepts into after-school programs at Bale, Wilson and Wakefield elementary schools in the Little Rock School District.
Chapman said that finding an elementary curriculum that incorporates business is difficult. "There’s not much out there," she said.
EStem Charter Schools also incorporates economics into its curriculum. The first e in its name stands for economics, followed by science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Dana Stovall, eStem’s economics specialist, is gearing up to start the Stock Market Game with elementary students, in which students receive a virtual cash account and try to compile the best-performing stock portfolio.
EStem elementary students receive an economics class five times a month. Stovall detailed her most recent lesson, in which she used the Olympics to teach classes about the economic impact such an event has on a country. She also used the abundance of silkworms in China to teach students about natural resources, which led to a discussion about Arkansas’ resources.
And that’s not all. The Bessie B. Moore Center for Economic Education at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and many other organizations in Arkansas offer programs that promote financial literacy.
Extracurricular Activities
The Arkansas Economic Acceleration Foundation, which is part of the nonprofit business development corporation Arkansas Capital Corp. Group, promotes entrepreneurship in Arkansas youth through business plan competitions, among other programs.
The Youth Entrepreneur Showcase for Arkansas is a business plan contest for fifth- through eighth-grade students, and the Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup is a contest for college students. Both competitions are still accepting applications for this year’s contests.
Piper Knutson of Arkansas Capital and Carrie Daniels, executive director of the AEAF, said they view these programs not only as educational, but as a form of economic development as well.
"By planting the seed of entrepreneurship at a very young age, you start to instill in them values of thinking about their community, their surrounding community, ways they can bring business and money to their local community and to the state," Knutson said.
"So if you start teaching them some intrinsic values about basic economics, then they have a desire, hopefully, to do better for their community and then want to create jobs that stay in Arkansas."
The Governor’s Cup has so far helped launch 41 businesses in Arkansas since it began eight years ago. Last year’s winner, University of Central Arkansas student Chauncey Holloman, said the prize money has helped jumpstart the production of her clothing line.
More than anything, however, educators view financial literacy as a foundation for a stronger, smarter work force.
"I feel that some of the problems that we’re having with the mortgages has come from a lack of education in economic and financial issues," Britt, economics education specialist at the Fed, said. "The earlier we can start kids to learning how to make effective and wise decisions, the better off we’ll be in the long run."
Britt relayed an anecdote that underscores the effectiveness of economic education.
A parent told Britt that after one of his classroom presentations for JA, her then 7-year-old son asked her to help him open a savings account.
"And he’s now saved over $1,000 in two years’ time," Britt said.