If You Are Counting On Government Schools To Teach Your Kids Financial Literacy, Think Again

I’ve always been dumbfounded by how little financial knowledge the majority of Americans seem to have. Considering money is the determining factor in most of the decisions we as Americans make on a yearly, monthly, daily and even hourly basis, you have to to wonder why so few of us actually know anything about it. I have a theory that some dolts may even call a conspiracy.

It’s time to face facts—the majority of people in this country are in financial despair. This Bankrate article sums up the myriad of problems facing Americans. Basically, many Americans have more debt than savings and the majority of us don’t have enough in a savings account to cover a $1,000 emergency expense. Considering the inflation Joe Biden and the Democrats have left us with, it’s not too hard to come up with various scenarios where a $1,000 expense could easily become reality. Just off the top of my head, pretty much any medical procedure, a car accident, or repairing damage to your home that requires a $1,000 deductible.

So why, with the importance of money in our daily lives, aren’t government schools (also known as public schools), of which 82% of American students attend, teaching financial literacy? I’ll give you two reasons.

My friends and family members know that I have a longstanding hatred of teachers’ unions. One, I think the only reason they exist is to protect fu*king morons who otherwise have no business educating children. The good and great teachers get screwed by unions. Two, when making decisions these unions never take into consideration what is good for the students and, in some cases, they even harm them.

For example, these organizations, the most prominent of which is the American Federation Teachers led by a charlatan/despicable creature named Randi Weingarten, lobbied to shutter schools during COVID-19. A decision that has already shown extremely negative consequences for today’s students and will no doubt affect our country decades down the road. Do you think Randi thought about students for one second? Of course not. Her priority was getting the AFT members paid for not teaching.

And then you throw in the school administrators, an overpaid group if there ever was one, who join in with teachers to fight against any change to school curriculum. It’s been within the power of both these groups to require financial literacy before students leave school. But both have fought it.

Thankfully, numerous conservative legislatures across the country, including my home state of Ohio, have told districts, “you’re teaching this whether you like it or not,” by passing legislation. It’s disgusting that administrators and teachers had to be forced to add such an important part of daily life into public school classrooms.

And, if you’re a normal person and you’re forced to do something, you’re probably not going to give it your best effort. That’s how teachers are teaching it. Inspiring stuff, right?

But public schools aren’t the only problem. I have been a longtime member of the “I Hate Government” club. This experiment known as the United State of America was founded, in part, on the idea that all forms of government up until 1776 were too oppressive. Ben Franklin, James Monroe, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and the rest of the founding fathers thought that there must be a different way to go about doing things. So they created a form of government that inherently limited its own power.

Unfortunately, the government envisioned by the founders has been bastardized ever since FDR expanded government through the ‘New Deal’ and Lyndon Johnson created the welfare state via his ‘Great Society’. What was once a government that encouraged independence, entrepreneurship, and problem solving is now one led by people campaigning on what they’ll give you monetarily for voting for them.

Think about one of the most talked about topics over the past two years–student loan forgiveness. The argument pushed by Democrats is that student debt is hampering the ability of people to buy cars, homes and prepare for retirement. Why not address the root causes of why students are taking out so much money to fund an education that isn’t getting them a good enough job (or any job) to pay off those loans? They don’t want to answer those questions. They just want to spend hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, tell Candi from New York City that they helped pay off the loan that got her a ‘valuable’ art degree so that she votes for them, and then stick the middle and upper class citizens with the bill.

But that’s just one example. Welfare benefits are soaring. More people than ever get food stamps. Illegal immigrants are offered free housing and healthcare. And the ease with which someone can collect disability from the social security trust is enough for the average American to say, “are you fu*king kidding me?”

This has happened previously in world history. Government grows, people depend on the government for money, government runs out of money, everyone is fu*ked. And it’s already happening. Don’t take my word for it though. Read the report from our very own government that states over 100 million Americans are participating in a ‘safety net’ program.

Do you think if government gave a sh*t about its citizens’ financial health that nearly three out of ten Americans would be receiving benefits paid for by taxpayer dollars? Of course not!

And that number keeps growing each year, so it’s not too tough to figure out why the class warfare arguments by the left are so powerful. If you’re one of the 100 million Americans dependent on these generous government benefits and you believe that the Republicans are going to take away your ‘free’ money, then of course you’ll be riled up and show up to vote for anyone the left puts up for president. On the flip side, if you’re someone who takes responsibility for your life and understands the basics of personal finance then you’re probably not voting for that person.

I guess the answer depends on your goals. If you want to raise kids destined for a life of sucking on the government teat then you probably couldn’t care less about this article. But since you clicked it, I’m guessing you’re interested in your kids having at least a basic understanding of personal finance, and more likely you want them to learn advanced practices.

I was raised to be financially literate. And I’ve actually learned so much on my own that I’ve taught my parents a few tips and tricks. There are countless resources out there. I won’t fill this article up with a bunch of more words naming off those resources (I’ve recommended one at the end of the article), but searching “basic personal finance” in a search engine will yield good enough results to get started. At the very least kids should understand not to spend more than they make, the benefits of compound interest, the importance of credit scores, and maybe most important, don’t accrue credit card debt.

To be completely fair even if I did send my kids to public school (I won’t) I wouldn’t be relying on teachers to pass on the knowledge of a topic that is so important. I think financial literacy should be taught in school because the sad reality is without it, many kids are never going to get any guidance on financial well-being. There are so many sh*t parents among us who have horrendous personal finance habits that shouldn’t be passed on to children (my wife’s experience). It’s better they get something rather than nothing.

But for me, I am excited to teach my kids about the stock market, banking, credit cards, saving for retirement, etc. That’s because I know more than most people and I want them to have that head-start on their peers. I may not be able to teach advanced mathematics or science, but I can sure as sh*t guide my kids on the importance of S&P 500 index funds and benefits of credit card rewards if used properly.

You may be sitting there thinking, “Fu*k, what can I pass on about personal finance?” The answer might be nothing right now, but spending a few hours reading personal finance articles will (sadly) put you ahead of most Americans. Hell, I’m still learning. It wasn’t until three years ago that I started creating monthly budgets and making stronger efforts to put more money away in my brokerage and retirement accounts.

The one recommendation I’d give is the Empower Personal Dashboard. That link does take you to my referral page, where I would get a small referral award for new sign ups. But that’s not why I’m recommending it. The dashboard gives you the opportunity to add every single bank, credit card, investment, student loan, retirement, etc. account to the app. From there it will show you the balances of every account you enter and ultimately show you your net worth. I have been using it for the past five years and I check it regularly. Not because I need to, but because seeing my net worth after the years of hard work is worth it. And it makes me want to keep going. There are other apps, like Betterment and Mint, that do the same thing, but I am a big fan of this one and have no desire to change.

The most important message I want to get across is that how much or little your child learns about personal finance is up to you. They’re not going to want to learn it any more than the union teacher wants to teach it. It’s just not going to happen in public school. Or maybe any school setting, for that matter. But there are certainly ways you can make it fun while getting them to think about their financial future, regardless of age. All it takes is effort, desire, and the understanding that the government has no interest in teaching your kids financial literacy.