I taught a class for Junior Achievement to my son's 2nd grade class a couple of years ago.  There was a lesson on what money is.  They included credit cards in the definition of money.  I modified that, and we had a class discussion on why credit cards are not money.  I did a little research and I found that Citibank is one of the large sponsors for Junior Achievement.  It looks like they influence the curriculum.  It makes me aware that we really need to watch what our children are being taught in school.  What is the agenda behind what they are being taught about economics, history, and science.  They are being taught values that we may not agree with, as proven fact,.  That infuriates me.  I have to re-educate my child on the fallacies of some of the things he is taught, and give him reasons why they are not proven facts, but conclusions drawn by certain people who have agendas to push a position of their own. 

Dave Ramsey has been working to get a program into schools to teach financial literacy and warns of the dangers of borrowing money and how to avoid borrowing money.  Our schools are pushing a secular humanism agenda, so if it isn't values taught by the state, it isn't welcome in public schools, so he has a tough task.  Secular Humanism is a set of beliefs and values that form a worldview that are used to interpret reality.  Though they claim it is not a religion, but it is. According to the Humanist Manifestos I & II: Humanism it is "a philosophical, religious, and moral point of view. (Paul Kurtz, in the preface to Humanist Manifestos I & II (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1973), p. 3.)

 Students are prepped as early as first grade, from what I can see, to become "consumers" and that spending is more important than saving to create value in the economy, and saving is only for you if you happen to have anything left.  It isn't planned, or put aside before you spend.  So when they get to college they are prepped to go into debt while they are in college, thinking they are being responsible "consumers" and playing their proper role in society.  It is up to parents to monitor what their child learns, and teach them how to properly handle money before they go to college, and understand the problems with credit cards.  If you have taught them properly, they will not want to use credit cards, and will know how to avoid them.

Manning has documented multiple college students suicides due to excessive credit card debt, and their parents never knew about it until their suicides, or soon before.  College students may be legally adults, but they have been poorly educated on responsible financial practices, because our school system is teaching government propoganda, and turning them into economic tools to be manipulated to attempt to prop up a failing economic system. 

Jim Anderson

The Truth About Credit

Facebook Profile

I worry about imposing caps in this way, too, though. What about nontraditional students, who are trying to work and put themselves through school, or are going to school based on their own accumulated savings? If I were a single mom trying to build a better life for myself, I'd be seriously ticked off if enrolling in college meant that my credit limit was lowered to $500.

With all due respect, my point was not that nontraditional students can't get into credit trouble, but that they have become accustomed to living their lives like grown-ups, and it is inappropriate to apply these kinds of provisions to them. You don't really think that a 40-year-old mother of two who goes back to college should have to have her father co-sign for her to get a credit card, do you? What if she normally charges daycare and pays it off each month, and the credit card company abruptly drops her credit limit to $500 and then socks her with overlimit fees?

I haven't read the legislation, so I don't know whether it applies to nontraditional students. But not every undergraduate is a dewy-faced 18-year-old.