National Institute Attendees to Take Part in Historic Presidential Advisory Council Listening Session

DFI to Facilitate Event Held at Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

(Madison) The 50 attendees at the Credit and Money Session of the National Institute of Financial and Economic Literacy (NIFEL) will travel to Chicago this week to take part in the first-ever listening session of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy (PACFL). The information-gathering session that is built into the weeklong graduate-level NIFEL program will be held Thursday, August 7, at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

The purpose of the gathering is to gain feedback about how to better educate people in the U.S. from all walks of life about matters pertaining to their personal finances. Nearly all of the NIFEL participants, the majority of whom are from Wisconsin, are educators who teach about personal finance in their classrooms.

Among the Council’s goals are to:
• Improve financial education efforts for youth in school and for adults in the workplace.
• Promote effective access to financial services, especially for those without access to such services.
• Establish effective measures of national financial literacy.
• Conduct research on financial knowledge, including the collection of data on the extent of financial knowledge of individuals.
• Strengthen and coordinate public and private sector financial education programs.

“Citizens of this state can take great pride knowing that Wisconsin is once again in the forefront when it comes to financial literacy,” said Governor Jim Doyle who three years ago created his own body—Governor Doyle’s Council on Financial Literacy (GDCFL)—to advise him on how to improve financial literacy in Wisconsin.

The GDCFL has in cooperation with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago since created Money Smart Week Wisconsin. It is the nation’s first-ever statewide campaign aimed at improving the financial literacy of its citizens. This year’s campaign will take place October 12-18 and feature over 700 events across the state. More information is available at www.moneysmartwi.org.

President Bush created the PACFL in January. David Mancl, Director of DFI’s Office of Financial Literacy and chair, Wisconsin Jump$tart is one of 15 appointees to the Council which is chaired by Charles Schwab of Charles Schwab & Company, Inc. Wisconsin is

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the sole state to have a member on the Council representing state government in large part due to the state’s pioneering efforts to promote financial literacy.

The NIFEL created by Wisconsin Jump$tart has been designated “a best practice for teacher training” by the Financial Literacy and Education Commission of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. DFI’s Office of Financial Literacy takes the lead role in producing the three-session NIFEL that now draws participants from around the country. According to an independent survey past NIFEL attendees reached 55,000 Wisconsin students this year alone. The NIFEL participants attending the listening session in Chicago will also join First Lady Jessica Doyle, Honorary Chair of GDCFL, at the Executive Residence on Friday, August 8 for the Credit and Money session closing ceremony.

For more information about the listening session contact David Mancl at 608-261-9540 or email him at david.mancl@dfi.state.wi.us.