E60: Financial Literacy in School and at Home w/ Vince Schorb, Founder of National Financial Educators Council

Unlock the door to financial freedom with Vince Schorb, founder of the National Financial Educators Council, as we explore the deep-seated connection between conservative values and financial literacy. Vince's journey from a youthful entrepreneur to a financial education crusader reveals how the principles of personal responsibility and capitalism are not only foundational to our national prosperity but also crucial to our individual financial wellbeing. Our dialogue traverses the landscape of financial education, shining a light on the need for an early start in schools and the role of real-life, relatable scenarios in teaching the value of earning over entitlement.

The building blocks of a prosperous future start in childhood, which is why our focus shifts to the impact of fiscal education in early development stages. Witness the transformative power of teaching our kids the real-world implications of money management, from budgeting for their first car to navigating the financial responsibilities of independence. In the trenches of education, we uncover strategies to encourage a robust work ethic and financial wisdom in our youth, acknowledging the emotional and psychological sides of fiscal decisions which are often overshadowed yet vital for lifelong stability.

As we wrap up our thought-provoking exchange, we spotlight the indispensable role of parents and educators as allies in this mission, equipping them with the resources and support to ignite a culture of financial competence. Together with the National Financial Educators Council, we stand ready to endorse and empower our communities, providing the tools necessary to navigate the financial seas. Join us on this journey to champion financial literacy across our nation's classrooms and instill the conservative value of self-reliance in the hearts and minds of our future generations.

Links:
NFEC Website
NFEC YouTube Channel
Vince Shorb on LinkedIn

Transcript

Mr. Webb: 0:00

How do you think financial literacy impacts your everyday life? Shouldn't we want our kids and students to learn about personal finances? What steps do you believe are essential to enhance financial education in our schools and communities, and how should effective financial education be structured and targeted to meet those needs? Welcome to The Conservative Classroom classroom, where we're teaching the truth and preserving our values. I'm your host, Mr. Webb, and I'm glad you're here.

Mr. Webb: 0:35

This podcast is a haven for conservative educators, parents and patriots like you who believe in the importance of free speech, traditional values and education without indoctrination. Each week, we dive into issues that are plaguing our education system and keeping you up at night. In each episode, we offer common sense ideas to improve education in our classrooms and communities. You may feel like you're the last conservative educator or parent, but I want you to know that you are not alone. By the way, if you like what you hear today, please share this podcast with a like-minded educator, parent or patriot. Together, we can teach the truth and preserve our values.

Mr. Webb: 1:23

In today's episode, we'll get some of the questions answered that I ask at the top of the podcast in our conversation with the founder of the National Financial Educators Council. Now let's get started. Today, I'm excited to welcome a special guest to the conservative classroom, Mr Vince Schorb. Vince is a pioneering advocate for financial literacy and the founder of the National Financial Educators Council. Vince, thank you for joining us, Joey, great to be here. To start, before we get into the meat of what National Financial Educators Council is, Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your background and what led you to founding the National Financial Educators Council? I guess we can call that NFEC from here on out.

Vince Shorb: 2:17

It is a mouthful, so that works perfectly for me. So yeah, the real concept behind this I didn't realize, but it started in elementary school. I was always very entrepreneurial, very interested. Concept behind this I didn't realize, but it started in elementary school. I was always very entrepreneurial, very interested in saving money, doing side chores and businesses for my parents and neighbors and so forth. And in high school I found myself at the back of the classroom really focused on reading real estate, investing books, stock market books, business books. I was really interested in that and I wasn't particularly interested in certain subjects. So I was back there and learning.

Vince Shorb: 2:49

I enjoy learning a lot and I got into the financial services area early on as well. I started investing early myself, bought my first piece of real estate at 19, another one at 20. Things were going well initially. I made some simple, dumb mistakes, like a lot of people do College debt, credit card debt. I made investments off credit card money, so that probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. So I learned the hard way a bit, but I got into financial services as a way to help other people. I love talking about it.

Vince Shorb: 3:20

When I was having some early success, my parents, friends, my friends were asking me hey, help me do this, help me do this budget, help me plan to buy a home.

Vince Shorb: 3:28

And I really enjoyed that time and I got into financial services to carry that feeling through and I did that for about 15 years. But toward the end of my stint I really felt like I was putting band-aids on people's financial issues and I had a reflective moment there. There I went up to my parents up in Montana and had a child with my mom and I'm like I don't know what I want to do. I'm kind of over this now. What's the next step for me? And she said you know, you always wish they taught about money in school. You always wanted to do that and you were studying, and so that led me to found the NFVC in 2006 and we started really just boots on the ground. I was volunteering and doing a lot of community-based programming. Now we're in every state 70 countries and really helping from schools to organizations, to financial services and entrepreneurs build and scale local financial education initiatives, and that's where we're at today.

Mr. Webb: 4:27

How do you think the conservative principles of personal responsibility are? How's that reflected or reinforced in financial education? You think?

Vince Shorb: 4:39

Yeah, I just I always find it interesting, especially youth today. They're not taught about money and so it's often hey, youth today. They're not taught about money and so it's often hey, they deserve this instead of I earned this right. And I think it does a lot from a personal psyche perspective. When you're just used to receiving and not contributing or being a self-sufficient member of the community, it really hurts their esteem. Looking at it from their perspective right From a country perspective and from a community perspective, it drags other people down and I think if we can help instill positive work ethic habits, positive money management habits, help these youth explore the variety of career opportunities and teach them that America is still the greatest country, the land of opportunity, and that will continue.

Vince Shorb: 5:28

I don't see for it changing at any time in the near future. That's what we need to be teaching these kids, so that they're not thinking that, hey, this country owes me. Instead, it's shifting to how can I contribute to this and help other people and build my community, build myself up and really take advantage of all the opportunities we have here.

Mr. Webb: 5:51

So I hear hints of capitalism in there. Would that be part of the curriculum?

Vince Shorb: 5:58

Yeah, you know, I think we focus on a broader definition of financial literacy. So when we look at financial literacy, we look at the money management side right, the budgeting, the credit, the accounts, etc. We look at the growth side, which is, hey, how do you grow and expand the money you've earned? But we also look at the income side right, the career, the entrepreneurship how do you earn money? And I think that's really just what capitalism is hey, how do we generate enough revenue, keep our expenses down, enough to grow, build and expand and build things? So, yeah, I think capitalism is a foundation of really everything. And when we look at the world, more and more people are shifting to capitalism because other models have proven absolute failure. Where people are shifting to capitalism because other models have proven absolute failure, we see people dying on boats coming to this country, you know, just risking their lives to get here because of that. And yet, you know, I think, through schools, I think a lot of people are sheltered in this academia bubble where they don't really know anything else outside of that right and they're not able to teach capitalism, they're not able to teach a free market, they're not able to teach how to be your own self-sufficient, contributing member of society and I think that's influencing some of the kids out there.

Vince Shorb: 7:14

Today we see a lot with college students and I'm always shocked in my conversations. You know we did this mock interview thing for a nonprofit and they were supposed to come in and, just like a real interview, hand us their resume, pretend it's like a real interview. You know they don't even know the basics. First, their resume wasn't well done at all and you know of course they don't have a lot to put on there, but there's things they can enhance it. They didn't know how to shake a hand. They didn't know how to communicate effectively. They didn't know how to look you in the eye, just some basic tense of business and things that you need to be successful out there.

Vince Shorb: 7:48

And I think that's just from a very simplistic perspective. I'm shocked that kids don't graduate not knowing the basics on how to get a job right now so they can become self-sufficient in the near term, nor how to make any financial decisions, and it it's really sad when we look I'm evaluating about half the states have mandates of personal finance right now. The other half their mandates are so low it doesn't even meet the minimum education standards, meaning they don't have teachers trained specifically to teach personal finance. They're using free resources they find online. They don't have funding. They're unfunded mandates, they don't have any outcomes or clear outcomes base, and typically classes average less than 30 hours.

Vince Shorb: 8:39

You know, in 30 hours you're not going to be able to teach a kid anything of real value that won't be subject to very quick and rapid learning loss. Right, you can get them to that understanding and recall reproduction phases, but you're not going to get them to those higher-order thinking skill sets like analysis of creation. And that's where we really need to get students to, so they can be competent in not only being able to get a job when they get out of school but also making qualified near-term financial decisions, so they don't get in trouble like I did. So when those credit card statements come in the mail, they don't just fill them out willy-nilly, so when they're deciding on a college they're not blowing, wasting a lot of time and money on colleges that won't fit their ideas of how they want to live their life from a return on investment perspective. So I'm always shocked that we've failed to adapt high school and even college curriculum to meet the needs of students in today's age.

Mr. Webb: 9:32

When I think of teaching personal finance, I think a lot of folks would think, well, you could probably fit that in one, uh, one year or two semesters. You know in school. But as you're talking about this stuff, I'm thinking you know it's much deeper than just here's how to balance a checkbook, here's what a loan is and how interest works. It's a lot more than just this superficial things that you think about. So if you can go a little deeper and deeper and what are some misconceptions about financial literacy and what should be taught? What are some of those things maybe that we wouldn't think of, that should be taught?

Vince Shorb: 10:21

Yeah, great question. I'm going to circle back to a kid's life, right, go back about 15, 18 years when they were first born. Right, because this is where the influences start. They're parents, advertisers, social media stars these just pure influencers too. The biggest channels on YouTube are kids unboxing videos, where they're seeing them open up new toys, or teenagers call it hauling videos, where they'll show what they bought out there. So pure influences because of all these other exterior influencers are even greater pressure on youth today to really develop just a purchase mentality.

Vince Shorb: 10:58

I need this to make me feel good and be cool like other people. So it's very highly sophisticated and I see a lot of kids just getting wrapped up at that at a very young age and I share that because of kids just getting wrapped up at that at a very young age. And I share that because, to answer your question, teaching personal finance is different than math, science, social studies, english, because every kid in there has different habits, different behaviors, different goals, different upbringing, different socioeconomic status. So it's a very challenging subject to teach because it's mainly behavioral, emotional, psychological. Yeah, you need to know some basic principles, but it's not an analytical topic. There's some aspects that are, but the majority is behavioral when it comes to getting them out on their own and doing so. So you know, with elementary school, I feel that financial education should really start in elementary school because it's easy to integrate into current lesson plans, it's very simple to do. As we're teaching basic numeracy and literacy, we can easily adapt personal finance into those. If they're writing a report maybe it's a report on how they're going to save for a bike, let's say. Or if they're doing some type of math, well let's make it about put dollars and cents in there instead of just a standard math question. So we can easily integrate that into the early years.

Vince Shorb: 12:13

When it gets to high school, the focus should be preparing kids for near-term things that they'll need. So, if we have time, if we can allocate enough time to prepare them for the near-term financial challenges, if we can allocate enough time to prepare them for the near-term financial challenges things like moving out on their own, managing, creating a credit plan for themselves hey, am I going to get a credit card? If so, if I get that credit card, what am I going to do? How much am I going to use each month to build my credit and really developing a strong plan there? What accounts am I going to open? Am I going to go to college or not? What's the return prospects on either way? So all these near-term financial challenges take time to address early on. So personal finance is more than just knowledge gain. Again, knowledge gain is very susceptible to learning loss, especially when it's crammed into a very small class. And again, average class for those in mandated states is under 30 hours. Imagine trying to speak Spanish after 30 hours. It would be very difficult.

Mr. Webb: 13:14

I had three years of Spanish and I still can't speak it.

Vince Shorb: 13:21

Yeah, I thought I had two years of Spanish and I always go into the Mexican meat market right across the street. I always go to. I try to practice Spanish, I always go into. I have a Mexican meat market right across the street I always go to. I try to practice Spanish. I thought I was ordering five pounds of carne asada and it was 15. He came out with a big bag. I'm like you know I need to brush up a little bit. So I'm there with you and you know the beauty of personal finances is these kids can apply it in the near term and in fact, they can apply it while they're in the classroom.

Vince Shorb: 13:46

A simple thing let's take high school sophomores. Many of them want to buy a car. It's motivational. We're not going to teach you personal financial responsibility. We're going to teach you how to buy a car, how to get transportation so you can get to and from work, to and from school, so your parents can do their own thing, and so we can build out a whole project-based learning around that. Where there's interest, we can teach them credit, setting goals, figuring out car costs, what they need in place, the real cost of car ownership. We can go through a very intensive project-based learning, where they're actually making calls, figuring out what insurance costs and so forth. So when you get them to that creation part of learning, now we have something of value.

Vince Shorb: 14:32

Now they left with a plan. Or when they're seniors, how to move out on your own. What does that look like? We used to do an event called Real Money Experience where we'd have these booths and students would make financial decisions fictitious, but they'd have a job and make these decisions and the biggest response was always I can't believe, this is what life costs, right. So now they can go through and figure out hey, what cell phone is, what gas is, what electric is. I remember when I moved out at 17, we didn't say that to roommates. We didn't know we had to put a deposit down with the electric and gas company. So we're all hustling that weekend trying to make extra money with our jobs and getting a hey, can I work your shift and all that. And uh, you know, to get the electric and gas turned on.

Vince Shorb: 15:15

So we're helping them practice in a safe, secure environment so they actually leave with an actual plan versus just knowledge. You know, I always tell people hey, within a if I do a short class let's say a 30-hour class I may be able to get students to leave. Let's say, understanding of credit. They'll know there's three credit bureaus there's. You know 700 to 800 is a good credit score. You should pay your bills on time, you know. They can leave with that knowledge and they'll probably forget it soon.

Vince Shorb: 15:50

Intensive classes over the years that progress and I can help them create a credit plan where they've actually downloaded their credit report. Even though they probably won't have anything on there, it's still good practice to get them to do. Some actually have. We've done this before where there's been some identity theft that had taken place. It was a good thing.

Vince Shorb: 16:02

They can create a plan to build their credit. What resources are out there? How are they going to do that? If they get a credit card, maybe a $500 limit, you know they're going to use $100 a month and pay that off right. We can have them calendar out when they're going to check the credit to make sure it's still in good standing. So in their Google Calendar, whatever they're using, you know twice a year they're going to check. So we can have them create an actual plan.

Vince Shorb: 16:29

And I think that's where real knowledge gains happen, and especially if we can anchor that topic to something they want in life moving out on your own, buying a car, going to college, getting a job right A lot of jobs are checking for credit. Now there's a reason for them to learn, and reasons are the biggest things you know. People acquire information and it's easy, with personal finance, to help them develop reasons to learn, and reasons are the biggest things. People acquire information and it's easy, with personal finance, to help them develop reasons to learn. Especially, this is where the ads and everything comes back to help us as teachers, helping them design their lifestyle. And hey, this is how the credit fits into your lifestyle plan.

Mr. Webb: 17:07

There's so much to unpack in what you said. I'm taking notes as we're speaking. And you said you need a plan, not just knowledge. I love that. And earlier you said this is probably not word for word you said that it's not just about information, or it's not just informational but it's behavioral, and I think that's so true. But it's behavioral, and I think that's so true. That's like you know someone that struggles with their weight. They might know all about healthy eating, exercising, putting on muscle or whatever, but the behavioral part if you don't have that, then you won't get fit. And it's the same way. Financially you can have all the knowledge in the world, but if you don't implement it, if you don't come up with good habits, then it's not going to do you much good. And one of my questions was going to ask you well, how do you tie that into behavior? I mean, we know it's behavioral, but how do you motivate them? You said you anchor it to something they want in life. Is that the key to changing their behavior?

Vince Shorb: 18:16

That's a big part. Great comparison with the weight loss or body improvement. I think that's an excellent comparison and there's many, many things like that. But, yeah, I think developing strong reasons and not telling them the reasons having them tell you the reasons and really understanding those reasons I think is key. I think parental involvement is also key. A lot of schools just do a really bad job in connecting with parents and enlisting them in their kids' education. We even see out there today some try to hide what they're teaching kids, which is absolutely insane to me. But parental involvement is really key to helping shape and adapt behaviors and schools can be a great pathway to provide this information. Hey, we're teaching our kids about money. Here's a project we want you to do with them Establish a chore system, have them contribute to household bills, where you're sitting down each month and showing them where the bills are going, and having them develop a short-term or long-term savings. And getting parents enlisted, because you know there's so much we could do in the classroom, but the parental involvement is really key on that. So the reasons.

Vince Shorb: 19:26

In addition, I think students, when they can actually feel like there's what I'm learning, has a direct impact on my life. We have to distinguish it from other topics, right? Some other topics like okay, you're doing this, so you go to college, so you can maybe get a better job and save more so you can live that life you want. With personal finance, I think there's a direct relationship. Hey, we want to teach you this because it will directly impact how you want to live. When we look at the hierarchy of human needs, everything in today's society right, not going back to the barter Actually, my parents still do the barter system up in Montana but for most of us in metropolitan areas, you can't do without money, even if you want to go to the beach. There's parking, there's gas, there's really limited free things to do. So just helping them understand, hey, this is how it will impact you. It will impact your security. It will impact your basic physiological needs water, shelter, so forth. People think, oh, water's everywhere. Well, yeah, a lot of water in lower socioeconomic areas is so bad you won't even want to drink it. It impacts their emotional state, their self-worth, their ability to form relationships and feel the love and belonging needs. It affects their time, which can directly impact their ability to pursue other things that they want in life. Teachers, we really distinguish personal finance, really highlight the benefits, have conversations and have activities where they're telling us why they want, how they want to live, how this would impact them, helping them understand the cost of certain things.

Vince Shorb: 21:17

Hey, you want that car Cool, let's look at that. You know you want that new Ferrari Wonderful. What does that cost online? What would the payments be? What kind of income do you need to earn that? I don't want to tell people what kind of car to get. Hey, if you want the Ferrari, wonderful. If you're making $100,000 a month, who cares? Get the Ferrari. But if you're not, you're going to help them develop their own reasons and where they fit in, where this direct impact is and what that lifestyle that they'll be able to build for themselves through this topic, which I think is very exciting.

Mr. Webb: 21:56

And some things. I feel like, well, my son's 22, and I feel like he has a pretty good head on his shoulders and he was telling me, I don't know, two or three years ago, we were talking about some things and he said well, I'm not really worried about my credit score because I plan on I don't want to go in debt, I just want to pay cash for things, which I thought was great. But a lot of folks don't know that some jobs you get, they look at your credit score Insurance companies. Now they look at your credit score Insurance companies. Now they look at your credit score. So, even if you're planning on paying cash for everything, you may pay a higher insurance rate if your score is not great.

Vince Shorb: 22:39

Very true, yeah, and that is you know. So I like his philosophy. Hey, I'm going to pay cash and grow from there. But yeah, just in the financial markets, I think a lot of things are shifting to how do we prove somebody's propensity to be able to pay back even if they're not doing that? How responsible are they with their money? Right? And so, since they view having a credit score as being responsible, that's arguable right With his plan, it's more responsible not to have a credit score to live that way. But you know, I think that might get him in a little trouble.

Vince Shorb: 23:12

But I love his philosophy and I wish more young people had that same vision. Let's stay out of debt. So I can, you know, don't get down that hole. But yeah, you're right, institutions, for many employers, are looking at it, especially anything dealing with money or any security issues. If they see high debt on somebody's or you know, say, more high debt, they flag them as a security risk because they're more likely to embezzle or steal right, right, because of that debt. And same thing with insurance. I see it, hey, this is a responsibility aspect of personal finance. But again, I do love his outlook there in minimizing debt.

Mr. Webb: 23:56

Yeah, he is. I didn't know I was going to be talking about my son or bragging, but he has a better head on his shoulders than I did when I was 22. I'll just put it that way. You may have touched on this a minute ago. I know we talked about high school and you talked about some things before that, but how early should we teach financial literacy? I know we won't teach it as a separate class, you know when they're in grade school. You talked about integrating it into other topics, but how early should that be?

Vince Shorb: 24:29

Yeah, I think about age three parents can start to have kids do some basic chores. I think part of money is developing a strong work ethic. Brown University points to a study of 50,000 youth by age nine work ethic habits form. Other researchers pointed between age seven and nine where financial habits form. So parents, it's really important and again that goes back to the reasons, advertisers, peer influencers et cetera but I think parents, it's important to help your kid develop a strong, healthy work ethic. That's the key to success and if you don't have a good work ethic you're not going to have enough money coming in to manage money and grow it right. So it's a real foundation and I think parents can easily help to develop that.

Vince Shorb: 25:16

Young Again, the first few years is, you know, behavioral habit forming. You know having kids spend their own money, so and this is a big one so when you know parents are at the store and a kid says, hey, I want this, instead of saying, okay, here's money or here, I'm going to buy it for you, instead having a chore system where the kids are earning their own money, maybe you pay them a little more. So whatever you're paying them, you know buying toys on a random basis they're earning it so that you can have conversations with them about opportunity costs. It may sound sophisticated but it can be very easy. Hey, little Johnny, you wanted to save for this bike. You told me that and you have $20 saved for that, but now you want to buy this teddy bear for $20. You know, are you okay with buying this teddy bear and putting off that bike for maybe another two, three weeks? It took you two weeks to save that. Are you okay with that? Or do you want to leave the teddy bear here and continue to save the bike so you get it two weeks sooner, so we can have those types of conversations? Money is a muscle, right? So he's developing opportunity cost, understanding opportunity costs in this example, understanding, hey, I have to work and put my effort, sweat and tears into doing something to get this money to make a purchase I like. And I think those simple activities, including those teachable moments, are great ways for parents to start.

Vince Shorb: 26:43

Obviously, as we get more sophisticated, I think schools can be involved in a very easy way in elementary school. Integrate that in classes very easy way in elementary school. Integrate that in classes. High school needs to be four years intense, because it's the subject that benefits 100% of students. That's the only subject that does.

Vince Shorb: 27:02

If we look at any other subject, it does not benefit. You know, by eighth grade most have basic numeracy, basic literacy. They can survive in the world without even going to high school. They have the basic components. Now will they be hireable et cetera, that's another story, but they'll have the basic numeracy and literacy to survive. You know, if we look at high school awards, we have a majority are STEM-related classes science, math. You know that type of education, you know it's very few are going into that space. Less than 10% are getting a job there. So I think there's a lot of room to bring in a subject that benefits 100% of students. That helps them, you know. Participate in this opportunity America's giving us and helping them really get off to an early start and avoid the problems. Sounds like you might have made a few, just like me here, joey. A lot of people have helped them avoid the problems that most youth face when they move out on the road for the first time?

Mr. Webb: 27:56

Oh, 100%. I'm sure if you ask my kids they would say that they've heard me say that a lot of times. I'd want you to not make the same mistakes I did, and you know some of those. It's like they would be so embarrassing if someone could go. If someone knew all the mistakes I made. It'd be so embarrassed. I probably would never get another guest on the podcast. They'd be like nope hey, it's.

Vince Shorb: 28:25

You know, it's the nice thing. When we grew up, there wasn't videos everywhere to remind you of that 20 years later, so we're very blessed in that sense thank goodness, and my memory gets worse as I get older, so I'm forgetting some of it too.

Mr. Webb: 28:38

Yeah, yeah, back to specifically in nfec. What exactly, uh, does nfc, nfec, do? Is it we, we parents? Is it we have curriculum for teachers, or both? Or is it, hey, we have the separate classes? Is it that we help you talk to your legislators about getting this curriculum in the school?

Vince Shorb: 29:10

Yeah, great insight and a bit of each. So our main component is we help organizations and individuals build and scale programs, financial education programs in their community. So we provide. So it could be a school, it could be a faith-based group, it could be a college, it could be a financial advisor, entrepreneur it can really range the gamut. Every day I'll be talking to a bunch of people from random industries that all have one mission that they want to bring financial wellness to their community or to their company or to their school.

Vince Shorb: 29:41

And we really start with the top right Teacher training. You know we have a certification program for teachers and just, I say teacher but I mean anybody that wants to teach personal finance, so that they you know, teachers are the most important element of student success. Study after study shows it, and that's the foundation of everything we do is making sure that they're qualified, competent, they understand the behavioral finance aspects, they understand the emotions and the reason people are making decisions. Plus there's content knowledge but really understand the concepts. And how do we modify existing teaching methodologies to accommodate personal finance, because there's some nuances there. Then we provide the curriculum, lesson plans, online learning, so really all of the instructor-led and the student-led learning. Additionally, we provide them the resources and processes to manage and execute that. So, from the invitations to the marketing to the handout signage, ongoing education I think ongoing education is very critical and then all the tools to measure I think with personal finances, not just pre and post tests, right, content knowledge does little to show us student outcomes. So we're measuring things like behavior changes, sentiment or confidence changes if they've established systems or if they calendar items. Those are all indicators of actual outcomes in the future, ideally when we, if we can have good follow-up, we'll do your, you know follow-ups two, three, four years down the road to really see, hey, is this making an outcome? And then really providing the funding tools to scale that.

Vince Shorb: 31:17

So our goal is to have high-quality financial education programs and, you know, just develop in every community. In this space we are accredited, which you think might be very common. We are the only one that we know of in the financial education realm, which is scary because a lot are just presentations rather than how do we teach effectively. So that's our goal and our hope is just to get, you know, increase access for youth on that part. Additionally, you mentioned where advocates were promoting higher standards in schools.

Vince Shorb: 31:52

So the mandates out here, we've been reviewing them all. The highest state mandate was under 15% of basic reviews. So we say, hey, every state should have mandates that meet minimum education standards required by other classes, which means funding quality curriculum, qualified teachers. They don't have it. It's really bad. Additionally, we are advocates for parents to be involved. Long-term we want it in schools, but until then, parents, you need to get involved in your kids' education, and so that's on our advocacy side and that's you know. I think it all works together to really promote. We want to be both on the hey. How do we help people now, but how do we advocate for a stronger future?

Mr. Webb: 32:37

I am very impressed and very interested and intrigued and I'm sure there's lots of folks listening that haven't heard of your organization and they're like me. They're thinking you know, this is really good. How can we get that curriculum in our schools? How can we get it in our high school? Should they start at that level? Should they contact you guys? Should they maybe start at the state level and try to get it pushed in the school system? What would be the best way to go about getting it in ABC high school?

Vince Shorb: 33:12

Yeah, you know, when it comes to policy reform it's a subject performance always really challenging, right, and there's a few ways people can participate. They can participate in the public opinion side. The interesting thing is financial literacy has overwhelmingly positive public opinion, so 80, 90%. In every survey data point we see, including our own study, it said you know they say, hey, I wish I was taught about money and it should be taught in schools. Right? So those are the two things that are 80, 90% of the public agree. I think that's kind of a problem because when you don't have 50% of people fighting, it doesn't get maybe the coverage it needs. So the public opinion side is one way to participate. We have the legislative side, or policymaker side, you know, letting your policymakers know hey, our kids deserve a quality education to graduate with the basic skills to navigate the financial realities. We can also work on the administrative side.

Vince Shorb: 34:05

So some of those states that have mandates where the administrative side didn't do much to enhance what's told to them. So a lot of these state mandates, you know it's written by politicians and they'll list up a bunch of topics, random topics to teach I just reviewed Massachusetts Bill 4199, and they list 70 topics to cover in about 60 hours as their class, but it's really 50 teachable hours. It's like there's no way they can cover that right. And one of the topics was online stock trading. That's like there's no way they can cover that Right, and one of the topics was online stock trading. That sounds like a very safe plan, you know. So you know the administrative side is to enhance that and really make it safe and you know, work for students, but when they're handed bad bills like that stuff. But that administrative side is the other piece.

Vince Shorb: 34:50

The last two pieces are from the college admission standard side. We haven't seen any changes there in a long time. It's so outdated, it's just bad. Right, they've been doing this for over 100 years very similar admission standards and we look, we have AI, self-driving cars completely different world than 100 years ago. So it's kind of crazy. Their standards haven't changed. Then we have from the teacher side and that's typically who contacts us is the teachers. They told me I have to teach this class. I don't know what I'm doing. I need help and support. They come out of their own pocket sometimes to actually go through that, because the school doesn't give them any extra for teaching. It's just like when the state has an unfunded mandate, they tell the administrators hey, go teach us. Administrators tell the teachers hey, go teach us. Teachers are like, okay, how do I do it right? So there's a few sides that they can work on, but all of them need help and support to really advocate and get this into schools.

Mr. Webb: 35:52

We've covered a lot of ground today, vince. What's the one thing you want the listener to remember, if they don't remember anything else about this episode?

Vince Shorb: 36:03

Yeah, I'd say two things For any parent out there hey, you've got to teach your kids. Schools aren't doing it. You need you know. The main thing you want is a happier, healthier, better life for your kid, joey, and I agree on that. I'm sure most people do need to teach them.

Vince Shorb: 36:17

If you are a teacher in schools and it's not mandated but you think it's important I think there's opportunities for you to integrate that into classwork, whether you're in the math side, english side or other aspects. There's projects you can do to incorporate financial literacy education in there. We're still meeting your core education standards, but there's some ways to integrate that. And if you can sneak in a few extra lessons on that, of course, run it by parents. Let them know what you're doing as well. I think it's important when parents are consulted in anything we're teaching.

Vince Shorb: 36:50

But I think there's some great opportunities for teachers to be a great influence and even if you don't have a lot of time, just even mentioning to them the importance several times, maybe pointing them to resources, the beauty is today there's so many ways they can gain their own information. There's podcasts there's, you know, like yours. There's blogs there's, you know, books, so forth. So helping them, raise awareness, I think is key. But yeah, joey, thanks for the time and letting me share that message and appreciate what you do here with your podcast.

Mr. Webb: 37:19

Oh, thank you so much and I've learned so much and it is an interesting topic to me. My first, my bachelor's degree, was in finance. I don't think I mentioned that to you, oh great, and I just started teaching at 40 years old.

Vince Shorb: 37:36

And I've been teaching for about 10 years.

Mr. Webb: 37:40

But for parents and teachers listening that, like me, love what they've heard, share with us your website, how to contact you, how they can reach out. This is your time to plug anything you want to Make sure you include social media, books, podcasts, anything you want to promote. This is your time.

Vince Shorb: 38:01

Yeah, just really three things. Our website has a lot of good general information. You can learn about the curriculum. Financialeducatorscouncilorg. Our YouTube channel has. It's my YouTube channel. It's National Financial Educators Council, but I'm really kind of the only one on there and I do a lot of state mandate reviews, education methodologies and concepts on how to teach more effectively. That's at National Financial Educators Council YouTube, but if you want to personally connect, I'm always happy to do so. I love meeting people that have the same passion. I'm at LinkedIn Vince Schorb, s-h-o-r-b. But thanks for that.

Mr. Webb: 38:39

No problem, I'll make sure and include a link to the website, the YouTube channel and LinkedIn in the show notes. Make it easy for folks to check you out. All right, thank you so much for joining us today, vince. It's been a total pleasure on my end having you on The Conservative Classroom and I know our listeners will appreciate your insights on financial literacy and education in our school systems. Hey, thanks so much for having me. That's it for today's episode of The Conservative Classroom. Thank you for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed it and learned something. If you liked what you heard, please don't forget to subcribe and leave us a review and your favorite podcast platform. Most importantly, share this podcast with a like-minded educator, parent or patriot. You can also connect with us on social media and share your thoughts on today's topic, give feedback on the podcast or suggest a topic by sending me an email at TheConservativeClassroom@ gmail. com. We'd love to hear from you.

Mr. Webb: 39:51

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Mr. Webb: 40:48

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