Grant allows further financial education for Montana educators

A grant will help train educators to use a no-cost family financial management curriculum as well as providing professional development.

"Montana educators are challenged on a daily basis to teach their student’s money management skills while meeting state standards," said Nicole Chinadle, manager of the Family Economics and Financial Education Project at Montana State University. "This grant helps them do just that."

The "FEFE" project received a grant for $245,000 from Take Charge America, Inc., based in Phoenix, Ariz. for the project’s work. The project so far has served over 400 Montana educators and several thousand nationally. Take Charge America has granted FEFE funding for the past four years. It’s annual training for educators will be June 12-16, 2006 in Bozeman.

Chinadle said most of the project’s success is due to the inclusion of educators in the development of curriculum materials and educator training. "To my knowledge, we are the only family finance curriculum developed by educators for educators," she added. The group will release a new introductory curriculum in January.

The June training is open to educators throughout the nation and provides in-depth "hands-on" family finance instruction. Educators may also download a variety of family economics and finance lesson plans for no-cost and an electronic newsletter, providing them with straightforward, current family finance information, along with helpful teaching tips and classroom applications.

For more information about the program visit our Web site at http://www.familyfinance.montana.edu.

Contact: Lisa Hallaman (406) 994-7221