The United States Senate voted to provide $2 million for the Excellence in Economic Education (EEE) Act of 2001 to fund competitive grant awards to a national nonprofit educational organization to improve student understanding about economic and financial literacy through the classroom. U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), author of the EEE Act, successfully offered an amendment to fund the measure to H.R. 2660, the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2004.
"Literacy in economics and personal finance is vital for all Americans, particularly as they face more and more complex decisions related to managing limited resources, responsibly using credit and debt, and preparing financially for the future," Akaka noted. "There is no better time to instill in individuals the knowledge and skills that they need to make good decisions throughout their lives than during their years in elementary and secondary education."
The EEE Act passed as a part of the No Child Left Behind Act (P.L. 107-110) within the Fund for the Improvement of Education. Seventy-five percent of the $2 million included in the Senate-passed Labor-HHS Appropriations bill would fund state and local partnerships for teacher training, assistance to school districts desiring to incorporate economics and personal finance into curricula, evaluations of the impact of economic and financial literacy education on students, related research, and school-based student activities. The rest of the grant would be used nationally for teacher training, research on effective teaching practices, assessment development, and materials development and dissemination for teaching economics and personal finance education.
"Our children are not being fully prepared by our schools to face the realities of life because they are proving to be illiterate in economics and personal finance," Akaka said. "The results of a survey of adults in Hawaii's workforce unveiled last month at a conference I cosponsored with the Hawaii Council on Economic Education showed that although survey participants correctly answered an average of 13 in 20 questions, many did not have a clear understanding of basic economic concepts. The need to provide funding for the Excellence in Economic Education Act is critical. We need to send a message to our schools that we will support economic and personal finance studies. If we fail to understand the real-world implications of this attitude toward personal finance and economic education, the students–our nation's future business and government leaders–will be the real losers."
