First convened in December, 1995, the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy determined that the average student who graduates from high school lacks basic skills in the management of personal financial affairs. Many are unable to balance a checkbook and most simply have no insight into the basic survival principles involved with earning, spending, saving and investing.

Many young people fail in the management of their first consumer credit experience, establish bad financial management habits, and stumble through their lives learning by trial and error. The Coalition’s direct objective is to encourage curriculum enrichment to insure that basic personal financial management skills are attained during the K-12 educational experience. The wheels of education do not need to be reinvented, they simply require balance.

Jump$tart's aim is to identify high-quality personal finance materials for educational use. The Personal Finance Clearinghouse is a database of personal finance resources available from a variety of education providers such as government, business and non-profit organizations. Once you find a material of interest, you can order it directly from the source. Many of the materials are low cost or free of charge. Teachers often use these personal finance teaching materials to support their state's standards in economics, business, math and family and consumer science.

For more information about the Jump$tart Coalition, visit www.jumpstart.org.