Jump$tart Coalition: Preparing Youth for Life's Financial Challenges

The Jump$tart Coalition (JSC) for Personal Financial Literacy convened in December, 1995, after determining that the average student who graduates from high school lacks basic skills in the management of personal financial affairs. Many graduates are unable to balance a checkbook, and most simply have no insight into the basic survival principles involved with earning, spending, saving and investing. As a result, many young people fail in the management of their first consumer credit experience, establish minimal to no financial management habits, and stumble through their lives, learning by trial and error.

The JSC's direct objective is to encourage curriculum enrichment to ensure that basic personal financial management skills are attained during the K-12 and post-secondary educational experience. Jump$tart strives to prepare youth for life-long, successful, financial decision-making by providing advocacy, research, standards, and educational resources. In this effort, they advocate for state requirements for financial education in the schools. To measure how students are doing, JSC initiated the National Financial Literacy Challenge. You can see the results of the Fall 2008 challenge at the Jump$tart Web site. The challenge is a voluntary 35-question test that high school students can take to earn recognition for their financial knowledge.

JSC has guided the formation and operation of 48 affiliated state coalitions that conduct meetings, events, and teacher workshops, locally. Jump$tart Coalition partners have networking opportunities with their peers and stakeholders within government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and financial institutions who share their interest in youth financial literacy. Bankers interested in becoming JSC partners can contact their state coalitions.