Financial Literacy for Children | Women's Wednesday

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Women's Wednesday. I'm Susan Tran here on DC News Now, and today we are talking about financial literacy for children, and joining us today is Arielle Levinson-Waldman. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks, Susan, for having me. Really excited about the conversation. And this is such a fascinating conversation because it's all about making sure that kids know about their personal finances and not just. savings but spending and all of these intricacies and that I feel like I never got as a child and you're the founder of SEDEC. Just a quick understanding, what do y'all do there at SEDEC DC? Yeah, thank you. So SEDEC is a great word from the Bible, means justice. So our mission at SEDEC DC is to increase access to the DC justice and the DC financial systems And we do three things in support of that mission. We do direct services, so that's free legal help as well as financial counseling. We have a terrific set of financial counselors, some extraordinary women especially, who lead our work in that space. Second thing we do is community outreach and education in English, Spanish, Amharic, and other major languages spoken in the district. And so, for example, we've had a financial empowerment program for younger adults for now going on four years. Really designed to get people, folks, the tools they need for that next phase of how do I begin to build intergenerational wealth, how to protect myself and my family from scams and frauds, how do I think about starting down the investment pathway, what strategies do I have to build or rebuild my credit, things along those lines. And then the third area, and this is really where these two areas intersect in a pretty exciting way, just here today in D.C., is systems change. Sometimes we know that the rules aren't set up. Right, or haven't been as fair or as well-resourced as they should be, and so we're right on the verge. Literally tonight, by the time this broadcast comes on, there will have been a vote by our D.C. State Board of Education on giving every kid in our D.C. public schools a right to financial tools, financial literacy class. As opposed to kind of an ad hoc thing that happens sometimes and we're catching up to the rest of the country on this issue in D.C. It's really exciting. It's really important. It's work that's been going on now for the last five years as a coalition. Both nonprofits and the government and our business community have come together and said, this is something that we really need for that next generation to have the tools they need to move forward. And let's talk about the idea of financial literacy for kids. There was a study from a financial banking firm that talked about just one single high school course will equate to $100,000. $10,000. In a student's lifetime, that is just wild to know that if you just take this one course, you're making a difference of six figures. Yeah, it is wild. And it's really important for us to know and for our policymakers to be thinking about, which fortunately, thanks to all the work that's been done by our mayor's D.C. Office of State Superintendent of Education, by our D.C. State Board of Education, our policymakers have now really reflected that insight. But we don't have to start on a blank slate here in the district. We have 37 states that have made financial literacy part of their curriculum, and that has given a lab from all across the country for these studies to say, well, what's the impact? And when you see those studies and you see the impact, including right here just across the border in Prince George's County. Where you see that impact being as high as $125,000 of lifetime earning increase for a child. It ought to be a no-brainer that we make sure to get kids access to that information, to that tool, to that framework of thinking about their future and their family's financial future earlier. We have seen in our work in the community, we've gotten so much feedback from adults, sometimes young adults, sometimes adults well into adulthood, who have said, Now that I've gotten access to financial tools and how to protect myself and how to begin savings and investments and thinking about my paycheck and taxes and planning all that, I feel so well equipped. But I wish I had this information two, five, seven, 10 years earlier before my credit report was tanked, before I was the victim of a scam or a fraud. Why is it so important that you're hitting it at the high school level? It's so important because immediately after high school. Whether it's somebody's first job, full-time, college, or trade school, or thinking about it for a few years down the road, every single high school student, basically, within just a few years, is going to have to start making those first financial decisions and steps and choices. And this sets folks up to be able to make those choices in an informed way. At a recent hearing at the State Board of Education, A number of current high school students said, I have to make a really tough decision right now about whether to go to college and which college maybe to go to, and I have to take out these big student loans if I want to do it, and I don't feel that anyone is giving me information to make this decision about my future, and it's a really important decision. My government's failing me right now, and I wish the next generation would get better. And they urge the State Board to make this change, that their younger siblings, their friends who are a few years behind, the next generation, would have access to those tools and that information. Because they're at the precipice, right, of like having paychecks, needing loans, there are credit cards, savings, life management. And that credit report, which reflects the credit cards, reflects the loans. It reflects payments on mortgages and increasingly, as it should, it now has started to reflect payments on time for rent. That credit report is so important. It's something that doesn't get talked about enough, and now it will be talked about more once this is in the schools. And we talk about it all the time. That credit report is the ticket to economic citizenship. You want to start a business? That credit report is key. You want to take out a loan? You want to get approval for rental housing? You certainly, if you want to become a homeowner and get a mortgage, and it's so important in our credit score, credit score, one out of every three jobs in the D.C. region requires a background check that entails a credit report assessment. And so we've had people come through our program who couldn't get a job because their credit had been impaired. OK, we're going to hold that thought. We're going to be right back. You're watching Women's Wednesday. Welcome back to Women's Wednesday. I'm Susan Tran, and joining me now is Arielle Levinson-Waldsman. Thank you so much for being here, and we're talking about financial literacy for kids and it being voted on as a possible requirement for D.C. public schools. Just talk about why it is so important that kids have this type of education. I know I didn't. I got one little class in grade school about balancing a checkbook, and, you know, that's not as helpful these days. But why would it be so important for our kids in the D.C. school system to have personal finance knowledge? Yeah, well, it's something that I feel really strongly about personally, but let me put that aside for a second. We have heard directly from kid after kid after kid, these are current high school students or young adults in our DC community who've told us why it's so important to them. What they have said time and time again is, these are tools I need to make decisions that are important in my life. For example, whether to take out that credit card, whether to take the student loan, how to build up credit in order to get approval for housing. Or get approval for a job, which often entails in our region, review of a credit report. How to avoid scams and frauds. What to do about the massive amounts of information coming at our whole community, but especially our young people, through AI and social media. How to navigate all this information, sometimes misinformation, and sometimes pathways towards harmful avenues like 100%. Um, uh, you know, percentage rate loan that people will sometimes get misled into, and that has years-long negative effects. So we've heard over and over that this is something that our young people need and want. And we know from looking around the country that in the states, 37 states that have adopted this as part of their curriculum, there have been big quantifiable positive changes in the financial futures of those high school students, and so it's a big credit to the DC State Board of Education and everybody involved in the effort that this is now coming. After five years of effort, coming to fruition for a vote tonight to make this an official policy change going forward in our schools. But who benefits from this? What is the excitement about? Every kid will benefit from this, but in particular, young people who may have not had somebody around the dinner table with financial experience are really going to benefit. We have seen particular passion on this issue from our young women. The majority of witnesses who came to the state board hearing were current young women in high school or young D.C. adult women who said, this is something that's so important and it's something that was missing when I was in high school or when I was early in my college or trade school or job years. And now that I'm learning about it or have learned about it, I really am glad I have I sure wish I got them earlier. I sure wish my younger siblings got them earlier because I've seen what happens. This is what they say when I'm a victim of a scam or a fraud. When I hadn't fully understood the credit report game and I see that my credit report has been harmed by some choices or some cards that I signed up for. Because this isn't just about savings, right? It's not just about... How to make payments or budgets, it's much more advanced that we didn't, I did not learn in school. It's really about setting up, you know, a person's life and future. How do you... get to that place. We all need resources. Financial literacy is great, but without resources and tools, it's never going to help someone. So it's not just the information, but it's coming up with how to get access to those tools and resources to begin saving, to begin, as we do through our TED BC program, to open up pathways to investment programs for young people so that there's a real chance of moving towards having a retirement account. That can grow out of an investment account. And when a young person starts that account in their late teen years or 20, in their 20 something years, the difference is massive in terms of the lifetime positive impact versus we have so, we know so many people, right? Who started thinking about retirement in their 40s, 50s, 60s, or even 70s. And I've seen real stress and struggle as a result when young people know. Their path and the strategies and the tools and can start to take those steps towards building wealth, especially towards building intergenerational wealth, something we hear so much talk about in terms of the desire to be able to do for myself and do for my kids to have access for funds in the 529, for example. That's something that we teach about because then what is also something that You're referring to is the kids will benefit. They're going to grow up and pass down all of this knowledge. So trickling down to multi-generational and communities that will benefit. 100% and multi-generational and also just within a family when you have an individual or multiple individuals who have really gotten the tools to be able to give themselves good advice, but then also give their sister, cousin, mom, aunt, friend, neighbor. Then you really start to see the multiplier effect of these choices, and it's one of the many reasons why we think this is a really good choice by our government to bring this to every kid coming through the schools, 50,000 kids at least. That is just really alarming that it can make such a big impact initially for the one child to kind of put them on the right path. Um, to benefit in the six figure digits over a lifetime, but then outwardly like a spider web for multiple generations. That's exciting. All right. You're watching Women's Wednesday. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Women's Wednesday. I'm Susan Tran. We're talking about financial literacy courses being required for DC students. Hopefully that's the vote that's coming up and we're joined by Arielle Levinson-Waldman. Thank you so much for taking the time. You were sharing that there's a story that really kind of encapsulates the importance of why you're so passionate about about making this a graduation requirement for DC students. One of the things that we've really seen over the last five years of work at TEDxDC on this issue, in and around DC, is that our young people really care and get why this issue matters to them, to their futures, to their families, and to the families that haven't, family members that haven't even been born to them yet. We had, for example, a number of incredible young women come and testify at the DC State Board of Education hearing. And one of them was a woman of just extraordinary energy. She was in her senior year at the Basis School, and it was Dylan Roach, and she got so passionate about this issue because it wasn't taught in her schools, and it wasn't available for her and most of her friends in terms of what the parents had access to. Thank And she actually spent multiple months interviewing hundreds of people in and around DC to find out who was getting financial literacy information and if they were getting it, how they were getting it, and realizing that this was not something that was available to most kids in our DC schools, you. and she became so passionate on the topic that she did an entire presentation at the DC Public Library. She testified to the State Board. She's now won a scholarship. from this work and has just started college at Spelman down in Atlanta, and we hope to bring her back as a leader on this issue. But she's just one of a number of really striking examples of how our young people have said our financial information and access and tools are really important to us. Our government hasn't been providing what we need. We're telling the policymakers what we need. The policymakers, to their great credit, are listening. And we're voting tonight to make change as a result of Dylan and others like Dylan who have come from the community and said there are states, including right next door in Maryland and Virginia, that are providing their kids with this information. We need it. We're entitled to it. Our future deserves it, and the district is now making this really positive change. What does a requirement for graduation in financial literacy look like for D.C. kids? It's going to be a half-credit financial literacy class taken at any time during high school paired with a half-credit in career prep. The idea is not to be theoretical. This is super practical stuff. How do I begin to make sure I have what I need to spend? It's not just a budget. It's a spending plan on life. And in terms of like, this is the kind of job I would want if I want to live this lifestyle. This is the kind of job that I would want to get prepared for. But also, this is what I would understand about my paycheck, about my taxes, about beginning to save for my future, about the importance of paying myself first. We talk about that in our classes all the time. The mantra, make sure to pay yourself first so that. What does that mean? So in our classes, what we talk about is make a commitment that when you're employed or if you're already employed now, you will invest at least $10 a month in your account so that it grows, it grows over time, and eventually, if it's an investment account, can become your future retirement account. And you can do that at any level of income. If you have higher income, much more, we hope, than $10 a month. But to make that commitment to yourself. And so these are things that. Are easy to not focus on as a young person. And we've had so many people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s say, I wish I had this information so I did focus on it earlier in life, as early as 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. And what other kind of key points would be in the course? So we're looking at everything from what is a budget to a spending plan to how do I think Think about savings. Making sure people get sort of how taxes work at the practical level to how do I avoid scams and frauds? How do I think about student loans, the cost benefit? And there are both costs and benefits to student loans. What do I need to do if I want in my future to be an entrepreneur and start a business? What if I want to become a future homeowner? So we make sure that people have access to that basic information. They don't need to know it all by the age of 18. But to at least have the core basics of what does it mean to have a paycheck? What does it mean to have a checking account? What does it mean to begin saving? What does it mean to move in the direction of investing in yourself so that you and your future family have that passively growing wealth? Thank you very much. I was not even, I think I was well into my 20s until somebody pulled me aside and said, Susan, are you putting money in your 401k? And I looked at the person and was like, I'm sorry. And I remember Nancy, my producer, and she's like, if you don't, you're leaving money on the table. And I had to have her explain it to me. So I'm assuming that's something that you guys would be covering. That's the kind of thing that... I didn't hear certainly when I was in high school that we know that so many young people even when they start making real salaries just figure well I could just spend every cent that I get because I'm getting it and I want to live a fun life and this gives them. The tools to make a fully informed decision, we're not making decisions for anyone or in the schools or not either, but we want to make sure that people have that full range of information so that when that first job kicks in after college or trade school, or maybe even right after high school, that people can be thinking right away about how do I pay myself? Yeah. All right. So bottom line, 30 seconds. What would you say would be key about making sure kids learn about these tools? So the big step forward here is that there's going to be a class that every kid has a right and actually an obligation to complete before high school. And that means that every kid leaving our DCPS system is going to have thought about savings and their future paychecks and how to avoid the many, many scams and frauds coming at them. Why they may not want to sign up for every credit card opportunity that comes their way. And there will be many that come their way. And what it means to look for a better rate, a lower rate of credit card and a higher rate of savings. All right. You're watching Women's Wednesday. Have a good one.