Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra features stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework, or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write an 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: Young People Taking On More Debt, 05/25/05
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june05/debt_5-25.html

Initiating Questions:

1. Do you have a credit card?

2. When will you have to start worrying about how much money you spend?

3. What have you learned about good financial planning? Where did you learn this?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. How has credit card debt among 18-24 year olds changed in the last ten years?

Over the past decade, credit card debt among 18-24 year olds rose by 104 percent according to a report released by the nonprofit research organization Demos entitled "Generation Broke: The Growth of Debt Among Young Americans."

2. Do you have to take basic finance courses to graduate from high school?

Only seven states mandate that students take a course in basic finance to graduate from high school. Fifteen states require a general economics course.

3. Are students finance savvy?

A national survey conducted by the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy found that high school seniors tested on income tax, credit card liability, retirement plans, and stocks and bonds on average answered only 52 percent of the questions correctly.

4. How do some students feel about their financial education?

Young adults like Jason Roth, who racked up so much debt that he couldn't get a loan for an engagement ring, urge immediate action.

"Every high school student in America should have to take some kind of financial-strategy class to learn about everything from banking, credit cards, savings, loans and protection from identity theft. If I had that type of class, I wouldn't have gotten into such a credit mess," Roth told MSN.

5. Who is Alan Greenspan and what does he think should be done to educate young people about money?

This worrisome trend is driving experts, including Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, to push for mandatory economics and personal finance course for all high school students.

Financial themes, experts say, can also be reinforced in other classes -- for example, a history lesson on the Boston Tea Party can touch upon taxation issues.

6. How have changes in the economy impacted this generation differently than those of the past?

College costs rose by an average of 38 percent in the 1990s, and young adults now carry the highest student loan balances in U.S. history at an average of $18,900 in 2002.

A tighter job market, rising living costs, and fewer employee benefits such as pension plans and health care make for a steep financial slope for young adults to climb.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. Pretend that you are in charge of designing a financial planning course for high school students. What topics do you think are most important? Why? How would you present the material?

2. Credit card companies often solicit college students to use their cards. Do you think students should be allowed to get a credit card? Why or why not?

3. Whose job is it to teach young people about good financial planning? Is it the family's responsibility, the school's or the credit card company or bank? Explain your answer.

Write a 300-500 word essay on any of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org]. Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.