Teaching economics is critically important
The New Jersey Council for Economic Education would like to commend the governor’s office for raising awareness of the importance of economic education with a recent proclamation to promote financial literacy. The continued economic challenges in our communities serve to highlight the urgency of teaching economics and personal finance, and addressing how these concepts apply to daily life.
The New Jersey Department of Education is one of 22 in the U.S. that has implemented K-12 Economics Standards. The N.J. Personal Financial Literacy Standard 9.2 ensures that all students will graduate with the skills necessary to practice financial responsibility. Curriculum content standards cover important concepts such as careers, money management, and civic responsibility.
Economic education goes well beyond managing one’s credit card debt. Economics illuminates all facets of our society, whether in the marketplace, the voting booth or at home. Life is about the choices we make, and economics is the study of how incentives affect those choices and shape our lives. Helping students build the framework for good decision making will in turn support the cultivation of a prosperous society of free and responsible individuals.
Since 1956, the nonprofit New Jersey Council for Economic Education has empowered students with economic and financial education by providing training programs and classroom resources to New Jersey’s K-12 teachers and school districts. It is more important than ever that our young people are anchored in a sound understanding of the choices before them.
New Jersey Council
for Economic Education