We’ve all seen and have been tempted by the friendly tent that gives away free school-pride merchandise in exchange for filling out a simple credit card application. It’s a temptation that is very hard to resist, especially when you are a struggling college student. You figure, “What’s the harm? I’ll only use it for emergencies.”
Card reform for colleges
We’ve all seen and have been tempted by the friendly tent that gives away free school-pride merchandise in exchange for filling out a simple credit card application. It’s a temptation that is very hard to resist, especially when you are a struggling college student. You figure, “What’s the harm? I’ll only use it for emergencies.”
The harm is that “emergency” turns into the need to buy the latest thing everyone has to have, and it snowballs from there. The bill comes the following month and you realize how much you actually spent and are immediately hit with the realization that there is no way you can pay.
On Monday, Feb. 22, the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, signed by President Barack Obama last May, came into full effect. Along with restrictions on raising interest rates on a whim, the act gives two major benefits to today’s young college students. The first is that anyone under 21 must have a cosigner in order to be eligible for a credit card, and the other is that you will no longer see those “friendly” tents soliciting credit cards on college campuses.
Though these are great steps in the right direction to putting a stop to credit card temptation and the early trappings of debt, we could go further.
For a number of years, it has not been a requirement that high school students pass a personal finance course in order to graduate and prepare for the real world. Instead, high schools are encouraging students to take college prep courses to ease the transition into higher education. As beneficial as these college prep courses are, they are not preparing students for the harsh reality of life.
My parents were required to pass a personal finance class when they were in high school back in 1975, but even then not all school districts required the course. Laurel Morris, a teacher at Sacramento Elementary School, was not required to pass personal finance herself in ’76.
“Economics was required with some personal finance incorporated,” Morris said. “There seem to be fewer and fewer, shall we say, practical living skills available at all, much less required in our high schools, i.e., home ec, shop. That is a shame in my opinion. They are all very useful and empowering.”
Young people these days don’t think too far into a future filled with mortgages, car payments, and all the other bills that require a good credit rating. If ruined at a young age, a good credit score is harder to come by.
Megan Schoenecker, a middle school teacher in Sisters, has her own thoughts on when financial knowledge should be taught.
“I think it’s probably more appropriate for high school,” Schoenecker said. “I can’t believe schools don’t already have them. They should, especially with credit card companies preying on college kids. I was a victim. ‘Easy money!'”
Credit card companies will now have a harder time preying on college kids, but if not properly educated on the essential life skill of personal finance, this new act may not help much.
“I don’t think the educational bureaucracies would go for a requirement [of a personal finance class] at this time, but they should be made to understand the importance of at least offering such life skill-building courses,” Morris said.
The task of teaching such a life skill isn’t easily self-taught and shouldn’t be put solely on parents’ shoulders either. What 18 year old wants to listen to their parents about finances? It needs to be put back in schools.
