Education Secretary Pushes Need For Financial Literacy

Career College Central summary:

Financial literacy needs to be a staple of the American education system, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said at Pensions & Investments' Investment Innovation and the Global Future of Retirement conference.
“When you look at the baby boomer generation moving toward retirement, when you look at a lack of savings, when you look at how insecure people are as they move toward retirement, as a nation, I worry tremendously about the financial viability of families,” Mr. Duncan said in a June 23 keynote speech at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.
Mr. Duncan was interviewed by Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments LLC, Chicago. He said seeing so many families without savings or a basic understanding about how to prepare for retirement has him worried about the future.
“The lack of preparation for retirement, the lack of savings, particularly among the black and Latino populations, is devastating,” Mr. Duncan said. “I'm a huge proponent of education as a tool to help move families out of poverty.”
Although he was happy to see a number of states start financial literacy programs for high school students, Mr. Duncan likened financial literacy education to learning a foreign language in that it's something that should be taught as early as possible.

Click through for full article content.