FINANCIAL LITERACY "DAY ON THE HILL" SHOWCASES SOLUTIONS TO GET AMERICANS FISCALLY FIT
Stephanie Bell
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
April 28, 2008
For More Information Contact:
Stephanie Bell
JA Worldwide™
FINANCIAL LITERACY “DAY ON THE HILL” SHOWCASES SOLUTIONS TO GET AMERICANS FISCALLY FIT
Congress works with partnership of financial education leaders to host educational summit marking Financial Literacy Month.
Washington, D.C. – The sixth annual Financial Literacy “Day on the Hill” will take place today on Capitol Hill in the Hart Senate Building Room 902. The event will showcase money management education tools provided by more than 75 financial literacy organizations. The Partnership for Financial Literacy Policy, which includes Junior Achievement, the Jump$tart Coalition® for Personal Financial Literacy, and the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE), will host the high-profile forum. Honorary co-chairs include Senators Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and Michael Enzi (R-WY). Honored guests invited to attend include Representatives Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX) and Judy Biggert (R-IL). In addition, more than 200 Congressional staff persons are slated to attend.
Jack E. Kosakowski, president of Junior Achievement USA and a member of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, noted, “Junior Achievement is meeting the critical need for financial education by teaching millions of young people how to manage their finances. Our programs use age-appropriate, hands-on lessons to teach kids how to budget, determine the cost of loans and revolving credit, and how to make wise saving and investing decisions. Knowing how to effectively manage their finances can help young people avoid being part of future credit crises. We’re proud to join with our partners and demonstrate leadership on this critical issue affecting the lives of millions of Americans.”
“This event is a natural fit for Jump$tart because it is a powerful depiction of the collective strength of many organizations working together, yet still a showcase of the unique, individual contributions of each,” said Laura Levine, executive director of the Jump$tart Coalition, who is also a member of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy. “In the financial literacy effort, the solutions can be found here, among our partners.”
“We at the NCEE believe our young people deserve to know about the economic system they will be working in, contributing to, benefiting from, and ultimately, inheriting,” added NCEE’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Robert Duvall, a member of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy. “There are few matters which more directly address the traditional American virtues and values of self-reliance, individual responsibility, and good citizenship then economic and financial literacy. With the current economic situation, NCEE has a growing and timely opportunity to be a key part of the solution, as both a leading advocate for economic and financial education, and provider of comprehensive K-12 programs for the schools.”
Separately, the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives passed resolutions declaring April as Financial Literacy Month, underscoring the Congressional commitment to increasing public awareness and dialogue around the issue.
The Financial Literacy “Day on the Hill” event was sponsored by the American Institute of CPAs, Bank of America, Capital One, Freddie Mac, The Goldman Sachs Foundation, HSBC-North America, and State Farm.
About Junior Achievement® (JA)
Junior Achievement is the world's largest organization dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy. Through a dedicated volunteer network, Junior Achievement provides in-school and after-school programs for students which focus on three key content areas: work readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. Today, 139 individual area operations reach more than four million students in the United States, with an additional 4.3 million students served by operations in 118 other countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.ja.org.
About Jump$tart
The Jump$tart Coalition® has grown to include more than 180 national partners and 48 affiliated state coalitions. The Jump$tart Clearinghouse, which lists more than 700 titles of financial literacy materials available for all, can be found at www.jumpstartclearinghouse.org. A map of state-by-state financial education requirements can be found at www.jumpstart.org under “Legislation.” More information about Jump$tart and its biennial survey can be found at www.jumpstart.org, including a media press kit with information on its survey in the “News” section.
About The National Council on Economic Education (NCEE): The National Council on Economic Education is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to improving economic, financial, and entrepreneurship literacy. Both directly and through its unique nationwide network of State Councils and more than 200 university-based Centers for Economic Education, NCEE’s programs reach over 150,000 K-12 teachers and more than 15 million students each year. For more information about the NCEE, please visit www.ncee.net.
###