Five Questions With: Margaret Brooks

Margaret Brooks is president of the Rhode Island Jump$tart Coalition. The organization was founded in 2004 and is a nonprofit organization that works to improve financial literacy among the state’s youth and vulnerable populations. Brooks, a native Rhode Islander and graduate of Brown University, is a professor of economics and the director of the Center for Economic Education at Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. She lives with her husband, Robert Brooks, and their children in Pawtuxet Village in Warwick.

PBN: What led you to work with Jump$tart and what keeps you there?
BROOKS:
For many years, I worked side-by-side with members of the Rhode Island Jump$tart Board at various financial education events and workshops held in New England. I first started working directly with the Rhode Island Jump$tart Coalition when I served as a volunteer judge for the annual LifeSmarts competition at the Rhode Island Statehouse in spring 2013. I was impressed by the positive energy and enthusiasm for financial literacy of all Board members, who had also come out to volunteer for the day. When invited, I joined the Board and I gladly accepted when they subsequently nominated me to serve as President in January 2014. We are all volunteers, and we share the same vision for building a financial literacy coalition across the state that includes all educators, librarians, and social services providers.

PBN: How are you working toward improving personal finance literacy?
BROOKS
: In my experience, I have observed there is already tremendous interest among Rhode Islanders in the topic of personal finance. Last month, the Council for Elementary and Secondary Education approved the adoption of Council for Economic Education’s National Financial Literacy standards for K-12 students in Rhode Island. The process by which this happened was truly remarkable. Over a period of eight months, a group of students from East Greenwich High, called RealEdRI, conducted student surveys and used social media to advocate for the adoption of financial literacy standards. This groundswell of support for financial literacy, coming from the students themselves, culminated in a presentation by RealEdRI student Charlotte Palmer before the Council on Nov. 10. As a result of the students’ interest and hard work, we now have the first-ever endorsement of personal finance standards in this state. The adoption of financial literacy standards in RI is not the end. Rather, it symbolizes the beginning of renewed and growing interest in this topic across our state.

PBN: How are under-served populations identified and how’re they being affected?
BROOKS
: Under-served populations can be identified in a variety of ways. High-need school districts are identified by using measures such as the percentage of students receiving reduced or free lunch. Many social services providers work with specific, under-served populations such as children or adults with disabilities, veterans, and/or senior citizens. Reaching underserved populations – individuals who don’t know how or where to access, or are hesitant to access community-based resources that can help with money challenges – is a challenge. All Rhode Island citizens deserve to have the knowledge and skills to make financially capable decisions, which in turn can help improve lives and boost the state’s economy.

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PBN: At what age should people start thinking about personal finance management?
BROOKS
: It’s never too early to start teaching children about the importance of making wise choices. Building financial capability should be a gradual process, not a one-time event or conversation. Personal finance can be introduced beginning in the lower elementary grades with age appropriate and relevant concepts and activities focused on saving, spending and donating money, which can be readily woven into the common core curriculum. When children reach middle and high school, they will need to start thinking about more sophisticated decisions such as getting a job, buying a car, going to college or technical school, and choosing a major. It’s especially important to make sure students have opportunities to expand their financial knowledge and skills during these critical teen years so that when they reach adulthood, they can be better prepared to meet life’s challenges.

PBN: What would you like to see for the future?
Brooks
: The Jump$tart Coalition plans to continue our work in developing partnerships with other organizations that are working to advance financial capability across the state. With the shift away from industry and government actively managing health and retirement accounts toward individual choice and ownership, we need to start educating our citizens well before they enter the workforce and are faced with making immediate and ideally well-informed decisions about benefit and investment options. We believe Rhode Islanders shouldn’t have to learn their financial lessons the hard way. The RI Jump$tart Coalition is committed to supporting innovative, collaborative efforts across our state that can help to meet these needs and enhance our state’s economic future.

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