Mar 01, 2019

NGPF Podcast: Tim Talks To Deb Janke, A School Leader Passionate About Financial Education

I reached out to our FinLit Fanatics group recently requesting names of administrators who "get it" when it comes to financial education. I heard from a teacher at Lomira High School (WI) who recommended her principal, Deb Janke, who has been "super supportive in my quest of making our financial literacy courses effective!" In this podcast, Deb shares the process her school went through to ensure that all students took a personal finance course before they graduated as well as the benefits that she has seen in her school and the community. She also provides some tips for teachers interested in sitting down with their principal to advocate for finance education. Enjoy! 

Details:

  • 0:00~1:26 Introduction
  • 1:26~3:22 Her school and community
  • 3:22~6:33 Deb’s early money lessons and her first job
  • 6:33~12:00 Making personal finance a requirement
  • 12:00~12:23 A Word from NGPF
  • 12:23~14:13 Relationships with the community
  • 14:13~16:24 Benefits of making the course a requirement at her high school
  • 16:24~18:32 Tips for teachers pitching a course to administrators
  • 18:32~19:59 The importance of personal finance
  • 19:59~21:39 Conclusion

Quotes:

  • “One of the things we encourage our high schoolers to do the most is we want kids to obviously have academics as their top focus but we always encourage them to get a little job somewhere on the side because the money brings about a such a different sense of responsibility but the other part is the connections they make with other kids, employers, and people that you don’t see at school every day.”

  • “Coming [to an administrator] with a full plan including here’s why I want to do it, here’s why I know our kids would benefit from it, and here’s what I need to get it started will make it a fairly easy sell.”

----------------

Interested in advocating for financial education at your school? Be sure to check out the Advocacy section of the NGPF website. 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

Mail Icon

Subscribe to the blog

Get Question of the Day, FinCap Friday, and the latest updates from NGPF in your inbox by subscribing today: