Teachers: Apply for Free Finance Curriculum From H&R Block

A press release from H&R Block:

Imagine if teenagers controlled their families’ finances. Would they know how to spend and save money wisely? Or would they max out every credit card? It’s hard to know, but with 50 percent of high school seniors failing when tested on basic personal finance, it’s not a gamble many parents would take.

Recognizing this, H&R Block offers personal finance curriculum to high schools through H&R Block Dollars & Sense and is accepting applications through February from interested teachers. Provided free through H&R Block’s grant process, the curriculum uses a game-like simulation to teach students how to budget, use debit and credit cards, save money, pay rent and avoid debt. Since 2009, H&R Block Dollars & Sense has awarded more than $2.5 million in curriculum grants and scholarships to high schools and students nationwide.

Teaching teens about money isn’t easy. Parents say they don’t know where to start or what to say and the discussion often leads to conflict with their children. With schools covering so many other critical subjects, only 15 percent of teens receive formal personal finance education before graduation. The result? Many teens venture off to college or out on their own unprepared to make sound financial decisions.

Created by Knowledge Matters, the provided curriculum retails for approximately $1,500, but for many teachers, that could be their department’s budget for the entire school year. To help schools clear the budget hurdle and ensure more kids receive personal finance education, Dollars & Sense will award curriculum to 250 schools this spring adding to the more than 3,000 schools currently participating.

Grant applications are now being accepted for the free curriculum through March 1.

Teachers can visit www.hrblockdollarsandsense.com to fill out a five-minute application about why the curriculum grant will benefit their schools.