By April Somboun

CEE greatly appreciates Wells Fargo’s continuing partnership and support of our annual Financial Literacy and Economic Education Conference, annual Visionary Awards gala, as well as many other programs over the past three decades.

This year, Wells Fargo’s sponsorship of CEE’s biennial Survey of the States report has played a key role in bringing visibility to our cause and demonstrating the necessity and urgency of our mission to advocates throughout the country.

Released in January, the 2016 Survey of the States revealed that that there has been slow growth in personal finance education in recent years and no improvement in economic education. The report has received nearly 1,000 press mentions to date, and its findings have been covered by news outlets including CNBC, PBS, Education Week, and the Wall Street Journal to name a few. Thanks to this visibility, individuals from Main Street to Wall Street and everywhere in between are aware of the state of economic and personal finance education in our nation’s schools.

Additionally, Wells Fargo’s support for the Survey of the States has allowed us to host policy events around the United States. These summits have provided us with the opportunity to engage key players in education policy and encourage them to take action to improve the state of economic and financial education in communities throughout the country.

The post Wells Fargo’s Longstanding Partnership Helps to Advance the Cause appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: September 19, 2016 | BY: brendan

By April Somboun

We are excited to announce this year’s distinguished honorees at the 11th Annual Visionary Awards, four individuals who are making a powerful impact on financial and economic literacy. The Visionary Awards recognize the outstanding achievements of leaders, experts and educators whose efforts are moving the needle in the right direction, helping create a society better able to make informed decisions as consumers, savers, investors, voters, and participants in our global economy.

This year’s honorees include Arianna Huffington, Founder of The Huffington Post and Founder and CEO of Thrive Global; Richard Edelman, President and CEO of Edelman, the leading communications marketing firm, with 65 offices and 5,500 employees worldwide; Frank Bisignano, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of First Data Corporation; and Glenn Hubbard Dean and Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia Business School.

“One of the greatest gifts we can give the next generation is an early understanding of healthy money habits and basic financial literacy,” said Ms. Huffington. “When we do this, we’re not only helping them to succeed financially, we’re helping them build a foundation that allows them to live a less stressful and more resilient life and reach their full potential.”

The event will be held in New York City’s landmark Plaza Hotel on October 26, the 2016 Visionary Awards will be emceed by Steve Liesman, CNBC’s Senior Economics Reporter.

The 2016 Visionary Awards are made possible by the generous support of our Platinum Sponsors Edelman and First Data; Gold Sponsors Mellody Hobson/Ariel Investments, HSBC, Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis, Mastercard, The Moody’s Foundation, Peter G. Peterson Foundation, PwC, State Farm, Verizon, and Wells Fargo; and Silver Sponsors Ally, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., FINRA, Ford Motor Credit Company, The Julis Family, Kirkland & Ellis, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, and UPS; and Fireside Chat Sponsor Bank of America.

For more information on CEE’s Visionary Awards, please visit www.councilforeconed.org/visionaryawards.

The post 2016 Visionary Awards Honorees: Arianna Huffington, Richard Edelman, Frank Bisignano, and Glenn Hubbard appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: September 13, 2016 | BY: brendan

By April Somboun

We’re proud to announce that Wells Fargo is the leading sponsor of CEE’s 55^th Annual Financial Literacy and Economic Education Conference, which is taking place in Phoenix, AZ, from October 5^th-8^th. Thanks to Wells Fargo’s support, CEE will be able to provide K-12 educators from throughout the country with outstanding conference sessions and workshops, networking opportunities, and an impressive roster of guest speakers.

Wells Fargo has made it a priority to support financial education through its Hands on Banking® program. Hands On Banking® provides specialized resources for both individual and classroom learning, all of which are available for free on their website in English and Spanish. During 2015, 3,137 Wells Fargo team members delivered Hands on Banking® workshops to 165,700 individuals and families.[i]

Thank you, Wells Fargo, for making our educator conference possible and for continuing to support our mission to improve financial education!

[i] https://www.wellsfargo.com/about/corporate-responsibility/community-giving/

The post Wells Fargo Prioritizes Financial Education appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: August 29, 2016 | BY: brendan

By Daniel Thompson

In This Issue:

2016 National Economics Challenge
Note From Nan
Focus on the Arizona Council on Economic Education
Financial Literacy Month
Survey of the States By the Numbers
Election 2016
CEE Programs
CEE Events
Visionary Awards

The post CEE Report – Summer 2016 appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: August 15, 2016 | BY: brendan

By Daniel Thompson

IT’S ELECTION SEASON

And we want to get K-12 students thinking about the next president and the economic future of the country. That’s why we’re inviting you to participate in our election video contest!

WHAT SHOULD THE VIDEO BE ABOUT?

We’re asking you to record one student, or a group of students, answering the following question in 60 seconds or less:

“WHAT SHOULD THE NEXT PRESIDENT DO TO IMPROVE THE ECONOMY?”

BE CREATIVE! Video entries must be less than 60 seconds. All entries must be submitted before September 30th, 2016.

WINNERS & PRIZES

There are two winners for the CEE Video contest:

Viewers’ Choice will be selected by popular vote (voting begins October 3rd, 2016). The Economists’ Choice will be selected by CEE’s panel of judges. Winning teams (2) will receive a $500 AMEX gift card for the teacher and $25 AMEX gift cards for each participating student. Winners will be announced on October 12, 2016.

READY TO ENTER?

Please review the rules and FAQs before entering the contest. Teachers must enter the videos on behalf of their students. Teachers may enter more than one video per class.

CEE is a bipartisan non-profit organization; videos cannot mention candidates’ names. Videos that fail to meet this requirement will not be approved.

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NEED SOME INSPIRATION?

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COMPLIMENTARY LESSON PLANS

While your students are busy putting their videos together, bolster their learning experience with lessons on the election cycle and the U.S government.

• Economic Misery and Presidential Elections (gr. 9-12): Teach about how two economic measures, the Misery Index and the growth rate in real GDP per capita, can be used to make predictions about presidential elections.
• Money and Elections (gr. 9-12): Students will be introduced to the sources of campaign war chests, learning about the recent court decisions that have allowed for the creation of “Super PACS” and 501 (c) (4) organizations.
• Immigration (gr. 6-12): This lesson helps students better understand immigration, a major issue in the 2016 presidential election.
• Voters and Elections (gr. 6-8): Students identify costs associated with voting. Then they make predictions about who might be more likely to vote based on their understanding of opportunity costs.
• President Obama’s Allowance (gr. 3-5): In this lesson, students will identify different expenses in the US budget and will decide on the order of importance for different expenses.

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PROMOTE THE CONTEST

Get other teachers and students involved in the video contest. We’ve put together some images to help you spread the word.

To use an image, follow these easy steps:

1. Choose which image you want to include on your web site from the options below.
2. Copy and paste the corresponding HTML code into your web page

Triple-click the text to select

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Triple-click the text to select

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Triple-click the text to select

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Triple-click the text to select

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The post 2016 Student Video Contest appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: August 15, 2016 | BY: brendan

By Daniel Thompson

FINRA Investor Education Foundation released its 2016 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) and its findings show that while most Americans are growing more financially capable, there are still millions who struggle with making ends meet – particularly women, millennials, African-Americans, Hispanics, and those lacking a high school education. These findings are drawn from studies that go back to 2009 when the first survey was conducted. Subsequent surveys were conducted in 2012 and 2015.

Among the study’s most significant findings:

• 56% of respondents with financially dependent children said that they have not set aside money for their children’s college education.
• Hispanics and African-Americans are much more likely to use high-cost forms of borrowing like pawn shops and payday loans compared to whites—39 percent for African-Americans, 34 percent for Hispanics and 21 percent for whites; and
• Only 37 percent of respondents are considered to have high financial literacy, meaning they could answer four or more questions on a five-question financial literacy quiz—down from 39 percent in 2012 and 42 percent in 2009.

Based on these findings, it is clear that CEE’s mission is crucial in closing the gap between those who are financially capable and those who are not. To learn more about how you can make a difference in your local community or state, visit our Survey of the States page and take action to help us ensure every student in the U.S. receives a personal finance education.

The survey’s full data set, methodology and related questionnaire are available at USFinancialCapability.org.

The post New FINRA Study Shows The Need For More Personal Finance Education In Our Schools appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: July 15, 2016 | BY: brendan

By Daniel Thompson

The post Save the Date! appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: May 18, 2016 | BY: brendan

By April Somboun

Last month was Financial Literacy Month and we teamed up with social media entrepreneur, Natalie Zfat on the #MySavingsStory video campaign.

Throughout the entire month of April, we shared personal video stories from writers, artists and economists to inform and inspire kids to understand and take control of their financial lives.

We received savings advice from fashion designer Elie Tahari, best-selling author of Diary of A Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney, entrepreneur Rosie Pope, President of the Richmond Fed, Jeffrey Lacker and others who shared what they’ve learned about the importance of financial literacy and saving.

Read Natalie’s post about the campaign and make sure to check out the compilation video with all the great advice!

The post Post Campaign Round Up: #MySavingsStory appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: May 13, 2016 | BY: brendan

By April Somboun

The Council for Economic Education is pleased to announce the release of a series of lesson plans to help educators (grades 9-12) teach the election and economics in their economics, civics, government, and other social studies courses. The lessons are all available for free on our teacher website EconEdLink.

Topics covered include:

• Can Election Futures Markets Be More Accurate Than Polls?
• Voters and Elections (Who Votes and Why?)
• Money and Elections, Economic Misery and Presidential Elections, and more

Throughout the summer, additional lessons will be added on important campaign topics as the campaign continues to unfold, and CEE will also be hosting a free webinar for teachers on how to incorporate these lessons into their classrooms.

To ensure that you receive information about upcoming webinars and new materials available on EconEdLink, you can register for free at the following URL: www.econedlink.org/register.

If you have any questions, please contact April Somboun.

The post New Topic on EconEdLink: Election Economics appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: May 4, 2016 | BY: brendan

By April Somboun

The post 2016 National Economics Challenge Finalists! appeared first on Council for Economic Education.

POSTED: April 29, 2016 | BY: brendan