Scotia Glenville Traveling Museum First Teaches Financial Literacy To Schenectady

Elizabeth Lafergola — or Mrs. L, as the second-grade classroom at Central Park International Magnet School in Schenectady knows her — has taught children the difference between needs and wants, along with the basics of making, saving, spending and sharing money, since 2007. [...] the Money Math program has been taught to 2,541 children at school districts across the Capital Region, including Colonie, Albany, Burnt Hills, Ballston Spa, Niskayuna, Saratoga, Scotia-Glenville and Clifton Park. "There are kids who can go off to college, sign their name to a piece of paper and get credit cards with huge limits and they start spending and it feels good," said Lafergola. Financial literacy programs are on the rise nationwide, spurred in part by a post-recession push to better inform a nation in financial hardship and combat a federal student loan debt that has crossed the $1 trillion mark. The state, which was given an A+ grade this year, requires high school students take a half-year course in financial literacy in order to graduate and administers a standardized personal finance exam at the end of the course. [...] even high school is too late to start teaching personal finance, according to Lafergola, who says teaching children at an early age can have lifelong implications.