Tyrell Raby is a little nervous as he waits in line at a Baton Rouge bank. “If you have a low credit score the bank won’t trust you that much,” he tells Marketplace.
Raby’s 13, and he’s actually at a fake bank, set up at a mall in Baton Rouge, with around 50 eighth-grade classmates from McKinley Middle School. He’s participating in a financial literacy course for middle schoolers.
As Marketplace reports, last May, Louisiana made financial literacy a mandatory topic in state public schools. The goal is to create a more money savvy generation in a place with some of the highest poverty rates in the country, and according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the highest rate of unbanked residents.
As part of the McKinley class exercise, Raby is pretending to be 33, single, with no kids. “I don’t have that much money,” says Raby. “My monthly income is $1,913, I think.”
The students cycle through stations where they pay bills and taxes. At the end of the day the goal is to balance the books.
Jamie Doming is project manager for Junior Achievement, the organization that designed the curriculum. She says reaching eighth graders is key to this process.
“Your highest risk students—they won’t even be there by ninth or 10th grade,” Doming says.
This means they will be out in the real world, dealing with real financial issues.
Because many Louisiana residents struggle with deep generational poverty, and compensate for that through payday lenders or simply deal in cash, Jan Moller, director of the Louisiana Budget Project, says the state’s decision to prioritize financial literacy should help.
