Yet another parental job placed on NJ schools (Opinion)

While Phil Murphy was away, acting Governor Sheila Oliver signed into law a new burden for NJ public schools. Effective immediately and to begin in September all schools will be required to teach 6th through 8th grade students how to manage finances. Sounds great, I know. Too many young people make dumb decisions when they get into the real world. But stop and think about this for longer than four seconds.

Whose job is it to teach children how to handle money? Forget what the government just mandated. The real job is and has always been that of the parent. If you don't teach your children from a young age the value of money, the difference between want and need, the difference between paying cash vs. credit, the meaning of a credit rating, etc., then you have not done part of your job.

It's bad enough schools are tasked with what's called 'character education.' This is where they take valuable time away from the basics to teach things like empathy, and honesty. Again, things any average parent should have been doing all along. Now they are piling yet more on teachers and districts that should have been done at home.

There are only 180 days in the school year. Some say that's already not enough. The more mandates to teach things that ought to be learned in the home means the less time there is for the basics and students will suffer because of it. Another thing I despise about this law is it does not specify how much time needs to be dedicated to financial management education. It's left vaguely as the instruction shall meet the requirements established by the State board. In other words, they passed this law and Oliver signed it having no idea how much time this will take away. If you want to read the entire bill go here.

Proving how out of touch she is, Sheila Oliver had this ridiculous quote. "Financial responsibility is an important acquired and learned life skill and with the increasing financial challenges millennials face, it is a skill that must be a necessary part of our education curriculum."

Uhhhh, challenges MILLENNIALS face??? The youngest millennial is done with middle school, and the oldest millennial is in their 30's with children themselves. We're taking life advice from a woman who doesn't even know what demographic group she's addressing. Also, we're accepting mandatory financial literacy in public schools from a legislative and executive branch that have been financially illiterate for decades, pushing New Jersey to the brink of ruin. How about these classes are mandatory for our elected officials and leave financial education of young people up to their parents where it belongs?

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