Financial Literacy and Education Comission (FLEC) Public Meeting

May 15, 2013

9:00 am – 11:00 am

U.S. Department of the Treasury – Cash Room

MEETING MINUTES

Committee Members Present

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Michael Herndon

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Richard Cordray

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Gail Hillebrand

Department of Agriculture Susan Shockey

Department of Defense Brenda McDaniel

Department of Education David Soo

Department of Health and Human Services Mark Greenberg

Department of Housing and Urban Development Bill Glavin

Department of Labor Phyllis Borzi

Department of the Treasury Jacob Lew

Department of the Treasury Cyrus Amir-Mokri 

Department of the Treasury Melissa Koide

Department of the Treasury Meaghan Muldoon

Department of Veterans Affairs Julie Schroeder 

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Luke Reynolds

Federal Emergency Management Agency Alex Amparo

Federal Reserve Board Allen Fishbein

Federal Trade Commission Cristina Miranda

General Services Administration James Zawada 

National Credit Union Administration Kenneth Worthey 

Office of Personnel Management Ray Kirk

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Barry Wides

Securities and Exchange Commission Lori Schock 

Small Business Administration Nathaniel Bishop

Social Security Administration Kojuan Almond 

White House Domestic Policy Council Racquel Russell 

Introduction

Cyrus Amir-Mokri – Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions, U.S. Department of the 

Treasury 
Amir-Mokri welcomed the members of and the public to the meeting of the FLEC. He then 

introduced Secretary Jacob Lew. 

Welcome and Opening Remarks 

Jacob Lew – Secretary of the Treasury 

Secretary Lew began his remarks by recounting a story about an eighth grade science class that 

he visited in Cleveland, Ohio. The students told Lew that they planned to go to college. Lew 

said that he was encouraged and motivated to do what he could do to make those hopes and 

dreams come true and that the Obama Administration is committed to helping young people get 

the skills and knowledge they will need to pursue successful careers and contribute to the 

economy. Lew noted that the Administration has focused on expanding education and affordable 

loans through Federal financial aid by expanding Pell Grants and improving repayment options 

available to student loan borrowers. Lew also noted that we can and must do more in this area 

because unemployment, and especially unemployment among young people, is too high. The 

President’s budget lays out several initiatives to expand opportunities to workers including 

creating advanced manufacturing hubs, investing in research and technology, and expanding 

domestic energy production, all of which are fully paid for and will not add a dime to the deficit. 

Lew then said that Americans must develop basic financial knowledge and learn how to navigate 

a complex financial system. It is critical to begin building these financial skills early in life and 

the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability has recommended that financial 

education be integrated into the school day. Lew concluded by thanking Consumer Financial 

Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray for joining him as vice chair of the Commission and 

by thanking his colleagues across the federal government for their support on this important 

issue. 

Amir-Mokri announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is now a member of 

the FLEC and how was very important for Treasury and FEMA to join together. Amir-Mokri 

then turned it over to CFBP Director, and Vice Chair of the Commission, Richard Cordray.

Richard Cordray – Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Director Cordray noted that the economic landscape that is confronting young adults is of critical 

importance to the future of our nation and our economic health. Cordray agrees with Secretary 

Lew that unmanageable student loan debt weighing down this next generation of adults should 

be of grave concern to this country and the federal government is working to figure out how to 

best manage that problem and provide alternatives and opportunities for young people to manage 

their debt. Cordray also agreed with Secretary Lew that education and matters of personal 

finance are essential pillars of life, as we know it, in America. CFPB recently released policy 

recommendations for youth financial education, starting in Kindergarten and continuing through 

the end of high school. Cordray listed the five core recommendations and discussed them: 

1) Financial education should start early and be continuous.

2) As part of youth financial education, students should practice financial management 

through experimental learning.

3) Engage and support those teachers who are interested in teaching personal financial 

management.
4) Integrate financial education topics into standardized tests.

5) Increase parental involvement in their kid’s personal financial education.

Cordray concluded by noting that CFPB’s goal is to give all consumers the confidence and peace 

of mind that the financial world is not full of pitfalls that will ruin their lives, but it is always true 

that the best and immediate form of consumer protection is self protection – being able to avoid 

problems in the first place and knowing what you can do when you have problems. 

Racquel Russell – Deputy Assistant the President for Urban Affairs and Economic Mobility, 

White House Domestic Policy Council

Russell reiterated that financial education/literacy is an important priority for the President. The 

President has talked about creating lives of opportunity for all Americans and how there is a 

direct nexus between financial literacy, financial capability, and growing the middle class. The 

President wants all Americans to have the economic security that comes with financial literacy. 

Russell said that she looked forward to the presentations today, thanked the Commission 

members, and sent a special thank you to Amir-Mokri, Melissa Koide, Cordray, Gail Hillebrand, 

and Camille Busette for their leadership on this important issue. 

Presentation: Young Adults and Economic Insecurity

Presenters

Dr. Caroline Ratcliffe – Economist and Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute 

Dr. Eugene Steuerle – Richard B. Fisher Chair at the Urban Institute 

Dr. Signe-Mary McKernan – Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute 

Recap of presentation

The presentation began by discussing wealth inequality. According to the Survey of Consumer 

Finances, a person who made $248,462 in 1983 would have made $496,536 in 2010. This 

represents an increase of 101 percent whereas the middle 20 percent and the lowest 20 percent 

incomes remained stagnant. In the same period of time from 1983 – 2010, older generations 

accumulated wealth while younger generations stagnated. This has the potential to create “lost 

generations” who are not able to become financially stable. The average family debt of 29 to 37 

year olds, excluding mortgage debt, has increased dramatically from 1989 – 2010. Student loan 

debt is up $10,381, car loans are up $302, and credit card debt is up $1,215, while other debt has 

fallen $2,078 since 1989. Most people build wealth over a lifetime through the stages of early 

childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood, mid-life, and up to retirement. People 

typically reach their peak asset accumulation at this mid-life period. The wealth building path is 

not the same for all people. The average family wealth for those born 1943-51 is significantly 

lower for Hispanic and African American families than it is for whites. 

Following the presentation there was a question and answer session. The questions raised by 

FLEC agencies covered topics such as financial education and debt levels, kids savings accounts, 

the high cost of post-secondary education, disparities in debt between higher and lower income 

people, and disparities in debt among gender. 
Deputy Assistant Secretary Melissa Koide discussed the Commission’s strategic focus on young 

people through the theme of Starting Early for Financial Success, recognizing that the financial 

stability of young people and their families is vital to the future strength of the economy. Koide 

also discussed the recent President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability and two 

important approaches that came out of it: Money as You Grow and Money as You Learn. Koide 

then turned it over to the co-chairs of the Children and Youth Committee, Luke Reynolds –

Chief, Outreach and Program Development, Division of Depositor and Consumer Protection at 

the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Jeannie Chaffin – Director, Office of Community 

Services from the Administration for Children and Families at the Department of Health and 

Human Services. 

Building Financial Capability Among Children and Youth 

Report from Children and Youth Committee and Panel Introduction

Committee Co-Chairs Reynolds and Chaffin described the Committee role, which is to 

provide leadership to foster collaborations between FLEC member agencies for the purpose of 

enhancing federal efforts that help American children and youth build knowledge, skills and 

habits to prepare them for a financially capable adulthood. The Children and Youth Committee 

is focusing on two strategies: 

1) Foster improved collaboration among programs that promote saving for children and 

youth toward known and unknown needs;

2) Promote and support coordination/integration among Federal programs with potential or 

goals targeted to prepare facilitators of financial learning to discuss financial concepts 

effectively in both formal and informal education settings with children/youth

Chaffin introduced the panelists. 

Presenters: 

Jeanette Betancourt – Sesame Workshop 

Julie Heath – University of Cincinnati 

Dr. Betancourt began her presentation by explaining some research findings. The research that 

she presented indicated that:

1) Young adults display lower financial literacy knowledge than older generations;

2) There are opportunities to engage young children in financial education in ways that 

integrate the whole family;

3) There are limited bilingual (English/Spanish) resources supporting everyday moments 

and financial education for young children. 

The formative research revealed challenges for parents, grandparents, and early childhood 

educators when it comes to childhood financial education. One way to address this challenge is 

to integrate financial education into every day moments, helping to teach children about choices 

and value. Betancourt mentioned that there are many free bilingual financial education resources 

available at www.sesamestreet.org/save and www.pncgrowupgreat.com and that there are many 

ways to facilitate the integration of financial education into a variety of settings. The research

that was conducted had an impact on helping both families and educators to do a better job on 

financial education for children. 
Dr. Heath’s presentation noted that the adoption of the common core standards by states poses 

both a challenge and an opportunity. The financial literacy/common core integration project 

offers a chance to incorporate financial education into different classes. Under this approach 

children will learn about different financial topics throughout their K-12 education. Children 

will learn about topics such as opportunity cost what money is, the value of education, setting 

goals, delayed gratification, scarcity, inflation, cost/benefit analysis, time value of money, 

compound interest, and risk. Money as You Learn offers tools for educators to integrate personal 

finance into the Common Core aligned texts, lessons, and tasks. 

Work Plan Report-Out from Committees

David Soo from the Department of Education provided the report from the Post-Secondary 

Committee

The Post-Secondary Committee is focused on decisions about paying for college because the 

Committee is concerned that parents and students currently encounter too much noise in the 

marketplace when deciding how to fund their postsecondary options. To help with these 

decisions CFPB, Department of Education, and others have direct to consumer resources that 

aim to help students and parents make well-informed steps towards funding their postsecondary 

education. The Committee’s goal is to curate resources and coordinate efforts across FLEC 

agencies to get the resources into parents and students hands. One idea of the Committee is to 

pilot an online “community of practice” of educators working to support students and families as 

they make financial decisions about paying for postsecondary education. 

Meredith Regine provided an update from the Early Career Committee 

The Early Career Committee is working on a financial education pilot for early career federal 

employees. Before developing the actual pilot, the Committee is collecting information about 

the existing financial education programs for federal employees to learn about what is already in 

place. The Committee developed a questionnaire and was completed by benefits officers in 10 

FLEC agencies. The types of trainings varied among the 10 agencies but for most agencies 

benefits trainings for new employees are voluntary and do not require a follow-up training. The 

Committee presented some of their other findings and noted that they are happy to share their 

questionnaire with any other FLEC agencies who are not on the Early Career Committee. 

Susan Shockey from the Department of Agriculture provided an update from the Research and 

Evaluation Committee 

Dr. Shockey noted two items produced by the Research and Evaluation Committee released at 

the meeting. The first is a research priorities document for Starting Early for Financial Success 

that builds off of the 2012 FLEC research priorities. This document is posted on MyMoney.gov

and treasury.gov. The second item was described by Allen Fishbein of the Federal Reserve 

Board. 

Allen Fishbein from the Federal Reserve Board announced that the FLEC has partnered with the 

Journal of Consumer Affairs to produce a special issue of the journal focused on the FLEC 

strategic focus Starting Early for Financial Success. The purpose of the special issue is to 

promote high quality academic research in the field of financial literacy that can be used to 

inform current policy discussions. The specific details on the research topics of interest for the 

special issue, as well as the journal submission process, are available in the call for papers that 
the FLEC has just released. The call for papers is available on treasury.gov, mymoney.gov, and 

on the Journal of Consumer Affairs’ website. The FLEC is seeking submissions from a wide 

range of disciplines such as economics, public policy, education, social work, sociology, and 

behavioral psychology among others. Submissions are due March 16, 2014 and the FLEC 

anticipates that the issue will be published in late 2014 or early 2015. FLEC plans to host a 

symposium in 2014 where the authors of articles selected for publication will present their 

findings in DC and receive feedback on their work. The FLEC encourages individuals to share 

the call for papers with any researchers who may be interested in this topic. 

After hearing no other announcements, Koide commended and thanked Ray Kirk, who is retiring 

from the Office of Personnel Management for his many years of service and dedication to the 

work of the Commission. She noted that Mr. Kirk provided enormous support to the Early 

Career Committee in developing their work plan, provided many ideas to the Commission as we 

developed the Core Competencies, and gave us valuable insight on the financial practices of 

federal workers. 

Conclusion and Announcement 

Koide announced the proposed date for the next meeting is October 17, 2013. 

The meeting adjourned at 11:10 AM. 

Link to webcast: 

http://treas.yorkcast.com/webcast/Viewer/?peid=e0cbc6dff8864f05861d35346a7ba55e1d