Financial education is something I’m extremely passionate about. Several times a year, I travel to schools throughout the state and talk to elementary students about the duties of the State Treasurer and the importance of a solid financial foundation for success both in public office and life in general.
The Center for Financial Literacy in Vermont, which rates all states on their financial literacy instruction, gave Arkansas a ‘B’ in 2017 for its ability to provide financial literacy instruction in Arkansas schools. That’s incredible news for our state when you look back to the Center’s 2013 grade for our state – an ‘F.’
There appears to be a nationwide trend toward encouraging financial literacy among young adults, and I’m happy that our state has had a hand in that.
Arkansas enacted a law in its last regular session that requires high schools to implement financial education curriculum as a prerequisite for graduation. Wisconsin and Kentucky also implemented similar legislation, and Washington state legislators passed a law requiring financial literacy seminars for higher education students.
In total, 20 states enacted laws that promote financial literacy in high schools, colleges and universities or public employment assistance programs.
In honor of Financial Literacy Month this month, I’ll be visiting a handful of schools around the state to award Certificates in Financial Literacy to nearly 300 students. These students have all completed AR Finance AR Future, a pilot program I initiated in the fall of 2015 designed to increase awareness and financial literacy among Arkansas students.
The program is free to schools and includes training modules about managing money, balancing a checkbook, credit and borrowing, paying for higher education, and saving for the future. We offer it through the Arkansas 529 College Investing Plan that my office administers and we target students as young as fourth grade.
What we’ve seen since beginning AR Finance AR Future is somewhat of a reverse education: We frequently hear stories about students bringing home what they’ve learned and starting conversations about money with their parents and other adults in their lives.
Currently, AR Finance AR Future has impacted more than 19,920 students in 148 schools, and has brought more than 36,500 hours of financial education to Arkansas classrooms.
Students are tested before and after completing the training modules. Of the students who completed the program in the most recent school year, the biggest gains in knowledge were in the categories of Responsible Money Choices, Savings and Investing, and Income and Careers.
Overall, we saw a 36 percent increase in knowledge gain prior to and immediately following students completing the financial literacy instruction.
While I can’t take credit for improving the state’s financial literacy grade from an ‘F’ to a ‘B,’ I am willing to say that the AR Finance AR Future initiative helped create increased momentum toward building a more financially-aware population. And I hope that with the state’s new financial literacy requirement for high school curriculums, our state continues to build upon that goal of moving toward not just financial literacy but financial wellness.
Dennis Milligan was elected Treasurer of State in 2014. The State Treasury is responsible for overseeing the state’s $3.5 billion portfolio. Since taking office in 2015, Milligan has receipted the state more than $154 million in investment returns and has grown the investment portfolio’s receipts to some of the highest levels in nearly a decade. The treasurer’s office also oversees the Arkansas 529 College Investing Plan, which is in charge of AR Finance AR Future.