The Career and Financial Management course taught by business teacher, JoAnne Jones, is required of all Wheatland-Chili students. In the spring of 2008, the Wheatland-Chili Board of Education passed a resolution requiring that all high school students take the Career and Financial Management course. At that time, Wheatland-Chili was one of the few school districts in New York State with the foresight to educate students in financial literacy.
Students explore and learn about a wide range of topics, including: managing finances and budgeting; credit and debit; insurance; savings and investing; taxes, banking services; financial planning and goal setting; and consumer decision making and self-assessment to consider specific careers that match their skills, interests, and abilities. Students use Naviance software to align their strengths and interests to postsecondary goals in the career planning unit of the course.
“One lesson is for students to take a look at their spending mindset and then work through problems, for example: what if I invested some of this current consumption money instead of spending it?" said Jones. “The differences in goals between savings and investing are also addressed.”
Students work through a budget simulation to get a feel for costs outside of high school and the costs of different choices, for example: cooking-in versus eating-out; having roommates or living alone; having a car versus using public transportation. Other financial units include banking, credit and the cost of borrowing money, insurances, retirement planning, as well as using planned buying principles when considering a major purchase.
Prior to teaching, Jones was a bank manager and bank officer and she has seen firsthand how lack of knowledge in regards to personal finance has led to people being in tough situations. She has seen people end up being unbanked which means no bank will allow them to open an account. She has also had to tell those with extreme amounts of debts and low credit scores that they do not qualify for bank loans.
She was particularly excited to teach here because the Career and Financial Management class is a graduation requirement and helping students to become financially literate was a cause she could truly get behind.