Background: The Financial Education Public-Private Partnership (Partnership) consists of four legislators, four representatives from the financial services sector, four educators, one designee from the Department of Financial Institutions, and two representatives from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).

The duties of the Partnership include the following:

communicating financial education standards and strategies for improving financial education to school districts;
reviewing and developing a procedure for endorsing financial education curriculum;
identifying assessments and outcome measures that schools can use to determine whether students meet financial education standards; and
monitoring and providing guidance for professional development.

Legislation enacted in 2007 established understanding the importance of work and finance as one of the goals of basic education. In 2008 financial literacy was included in Washington's seventh grade level expectations for social studies and economics. There are no separate state learning standards for financial education.

The JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy (Coalition) is a nonprofit organization that promotes financial literacy among students from prekindergarten through college. The Coalition partners with business, finance, nonprofit, academic, and government entities, including Washington. The Washington branch of the Coalition adopted financial literacy concepts that link with EALRs, which school districts are encouraged to adopt.

Summary of Bill: The State Treasurer or the State Treasurer's designee is added as a member to the Partnership. Teachers who are members of the Partnership may be paid their travel expenses according to current law from funds available in the Partnership account. Funds from the Partnership account may also pay for a substitute teacher when member teachers attend official meetings of the Partnership. If the Partnership pays for these expenses, the school district must release a teacher to attend official Partnership meetings.

Online instructional materials and resources are added to the financial education curriculum that the Partnership reviews on an ongoing basis. The Partnership must work with OSPI to integrate financial education skills and content knowledge into the state learning standards. Standards in K–12 personal financial education developed by a national coalition for personal financial literacy that includes partners from business, finance, government, academia, education, and state affiliates are adopted as the state financial education learning standards.

The Partnership is no longer required to identify assessments and outcome measures for schools to determine whether students meet the financial education standards, or to create professional development that could lead to a certificate endorsement or other certification of competency.

After consulting with the partnership, OSPI must make available to all districts a list of materials that align with the financial education standards integrated into the state learning standards. Districts must provide high school students the opportunity to access the financial education standards and publicize the availability of these opportunities to students and their families. The Partnership is authorized to seek federal and private funds to support districts in providing access to the listed materials as well as related professional development activities for certificated staff.

Staff Summary of Public Testimony: PRO: Financial education is important and can help students make smart financial decisions and reduce fraud. Financial education can better prepare students for life after school whether they go to college or to a career. The purpose of the Partnership is to determine the best methods of teaching students about personal finance and this bill comes out of work with stakeholders to develop the necessary curriculum. The bill furthers the goal of getting financial education into high schools and can better prepare students for the increasingly complex financial environment of today and tomorrow. Partnership's members are engaged, knowledgeable, and do a great job with the trainings offered across the state. This is a logical extension of the Partnership's work.