State Treasurer John Perdue wants children in West Virginia schools to learn more about personal finance. One example might be the dangers of buying a house with a low down payment and without the resources to make monthly mortgage payments.
We agree wholeheartedly with Perdue and the many Mountain State educators who want to beef up personal finance education in schools.
At the same time, schools clearly need to do a better job on teaching children about the economy as a whole. For example, what happens when government and some big financial institutions encourage Americans to take on mortgages they can't afford?
What happens, as we have seen, is a massive collapse in the housing industry. We also have seen that a few demagogues in politics continue to be able to mislead Americans about the cause of the crisis and what needs to be done to end it.
Perdue has been working with other state agencies and the state Board of Education on a program called NetWorth. The idea behind it is to prepare young people to handle personal finance issues - everything from balancing checkbooks to using credit prudently.
Ideas such as NetWorth are nothing new. For many years it has been obvious that schools need to do a better job in personal finance education. Also for many years, there have been various initiatives to accomplish just that. It does not appear that they have done the job.
Instead of merely declaring that more emphasis is to be placed on both personal and general economics, educators should take a close look at what has worked - and what has not - in such programs. It is our impression that there ought to be plenty of information available.
And again, just teaching students how to avoid personal finance pitfalls is not enough. They need better education on business, industry and government, too. To judge by developments during recent years - more irresponsible spending by Americans, in part because of government actions - that is a pressing need.
