Arkansas is Upping its Game

April is Financial Literacy Month. This event offers an opportunity for organizations, businesses, and communities to promote programs that improve financial knowledge and skills. The American Public Education Foundation is charged with annually developing The Nation’s Report Card on Financial Literacy. This report describes each state’s efforts to improve financial literacy. An annual report card grade is included, which compares last year to previous years’ reports. Recommendations are made to each state for improvement.

Arkansas has historically maintained its customary ranking towards the bottom of states. Our ranking has recently improved due to the efforts of our legislature, our public schools, local businesses, non-profit organizations, and the State Treasurer’s office.

In the last several years Arkansas has made a concerted effort to increase basic financial education in the schools. First, 2004 Arkansas Act 42 (Senate Bill 41) amended the state code to add a “Personal Finance” course to the state curriculum. Next, in 2017 Act 480 (House Bill 1442) mandated that 

“The Department of Education, in consultation with the Department of Career Education and subject to the approval of the State Board of Education, shall develop personal and family finance standards” and that “each public high school student shall be required before graduation to earn a credit in a course taken in grade ten, grade eleven, or grade twelve that includes the personal and family finance standards.” 

A ½ credit course is now required for all public-school students in Economics and Personal Finance for grades 9-12. Our schools still need programs for K-9 students for us to move to a grade of A.

Finally, in 2021 the Arkansas legislature passed Act 1025 establishing the Arkansas Financial Education Commission. The Commission’s mission statement is Helping Arkansans achieve financial well-being through education and networking, for now and for future generations.

This Commission is comprised of a mixture of nine governmental and community appointees with a financial background. They have now met three times and have decided that their target audiences should be: low-income families, emerging adults, and K-12 students. 

The Commission has already partnered with the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) to host a series of financial education webinars geared toward educating the public on basic financial matters.

Here are the topics:

1. Budgeting and Planning
2. Avoiding Debt Traps with Educational Expenses
3. Avoiding Debt Traps with Medical Expenses
4. Buying vs. Renting
5. Avoiding Identity Theft and Staying Cyber-Secure
6. Planning for Retirement

The State Treasurer’s office and the Arkansas Financial Education Commission created AR Finance AR Future, a website to help educate all Arkansas in financial matters. This website has resource links targeted to seniors, veterans, Hispanics, and young adults. This would be a great site to refer a friend to who needs help in the financial area.

In addition, the Treasurer’s office has sponsored the Smart Women Smart Money conference for the past three years. The conference educates and empowers women about money, their finances, and business development.

One of the most important organizations in promoting financial literacy in the schools is the Jumpstart Coalition. This nonprofit’s mission is “to develop a strategic plan for improving the quality and extent of curriculum modules for personal finance education in the nation’s schools, grades K-12.”

Jumpstart’s 12 Principles

Their education revolves around 12 Principles – focusing on one principle for each month:

They have developed resources for each principle that coordinate with the National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education.

There is a Jumpstart Coalition for every state. Individuals, businesses, government officials, and educational partners are all involved in the mission to improve the personal financial literacy of Arkansas’s youth. Arkansas can be proud of its approach to improve financial literacy in our state. We have just started and will continue to add more and more programs. I predict we will soon have an A on our state’s report card for Financial Literacy.

Important Links

The Nation’s Report Card- Arkansas
Arkansas Financial Education Commission
National Standards Personal Financial Education
AR Finance AR Future
National Jumpstart Coalition
Jumpstart Coalition- Arkansas

Ralph Broadwater, M.D., CFP®

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