Teachers, Students, Get Your Personal Finance HERE!

Yesterday CNN had a short clip about high schools requiring a personal finance class. Definately a good idea. Schools in Missouri and New York already have some classes in place and more states are incorporating personal finance into their curriculum as well. This is definately a step in the right direction, everyone should know the basics to make sound financial decisions. Most schools have some sort of civics course or economics offered as electives already. Many banks and companies are chipping in to provide funding and materials for schools. Here's the part that stinks two major players in the credit card game - VISA and CITI are providing the greatest amount of learning materials. As long as the materials are non-biased and don't play favorites it's fine. I can just see this causing more harm than good if a bunch of 18 yr old (who fail the personal finance class) learn how to fill out credit card applications in order to get a new IPod. Visa's program looks pretty well done check it out, it's called Practical Money Skills for Life (especially if you're a teacher - there's free instructional information). Citi's seems shadier (more tilted towards using it's company and products) but does have good general info about your credit score. The Citigroup Financial Eductation Program has an abudance of information and free instructional materials as well. It is more like a generic warning like "handle with care" when it comes to credit cards (the same as Miller's slogan -"Drink Responsibly"). Same idea use our product, but use it carefully. Citi does offer a link for younger people who are interested in investing called The Young Investors Network
I prefer VISA's program because it doesn't have the Visa logo plastered all over the site like Citigroup.