At a time when it would be super duper helpful to have a solid education in economic and financial matters, few people do:
The upheavals in the financial markets have made us newly aware of how much depends on our financial security-and also how little most Americans understand about financial markets, or even personal finances.
It starts in our schools. Younger Americans are deplorably uninformed about economic and financial matters.
In 1999, researchers at the Securities and Exchange Commission concluded that 66 percent of high school seniors could not pass a basic economic literacy test. Things have not changed for the better since.
In 2008, the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy administered its financial literacy test to 6,856 high school seniors in 40 states. The overall score was 48 percent. Only 17 percent knew investing in stocks would probably generate the most return over an 18-year period.
More here.