NEFE to retire high school financial planning program

You might call it the end of an era.

For 20 years, the Cornerstone Foundation has been a proud sponsor of the National Endowment for Financial Education’s (NEFE) High School Financial Planning Program. In fact, the Foundation had made the high school program one of its signature Foundation programs. NEFE has now decided to end the program.

On its website, NEFE notes that financial education has come a long way since the organization launched its first resource in 1984. “To that end, our intention over the next year is to transform NEFE into an institute that advances high-impact scholarly research and facilitates collaboration with practitioners, advocates, and policymakers.”

Cornerstone Foundation Executive Director Courtney Moran said, “While we will hate to see the program go because we have been a strong supporter for two decades, we are pleased to note that there are now many programs that offer similar financial education to our schools. The schools will remain a priority for the Foundation because they are critical to helping our children grow into successful adults. But it has become clear that we must also focus on the bigger picture to help our members live financially healthy lives, and we will be shifting more of our emphasis in that direction.”

She noted that high schools will not be without resources for financial education. Here is a list of some great programs they can tap:

• The Council for Economic Education is a national nonprofit organization that through its 188 local affiliates provides personal finance and economics curriculum and training to K-12 educators.
• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a government agency that regulates many consumer financial products and services, provides educational resources for consumers and educators and has a set of resources specifically for youth educators.
• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is an independent government agency that provides the Money Smart for Young People financial education program, which includes free resources and tools for educators and learners.
• The Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy consists of more than 100 national organizations and 51 affiliated state coalitions that share a commitment to advancing youth financial literacy. The organization provides the Jump$tart Clearinghouse, an online library of resources for educators and parents that allows users to filter for high school and teen resources.

The Cornerstone Foundation has also created partnerships with the following financial capability providers who all have robust online learning platforms for all ages:

• BALANCE – Visit WhyBALANCE.org for more details 
• Enrich - Learn more about the ENRICH platform
• EverFi - Learn more about EverFi Achieve
• KOFE – Learn more about KOFE

Moran said the Foundation will continue supporting financial education in schools through member credit unions.

“We will still provide our member credit unions the necessary tools and resources to partner with their local schools,” she said. “Train the trainer sessions, experiential learning programs like the BALANCED Life Reality Fairs and classroom simulations, and vetted and recommended curriculum will still be available. We also will support financial education legislation and keep our network apprised of developments as we always have.”