While not much time is spent in K-12 educating students about money, once they graduate, it will become critically important. “Not a day will go by that they're not thinking about money. How to make it, how to spend it, how to save it,” says John Pelletier, director of the Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College.

April is Financial Literacy Month, and to that end, we’ve curated financial literacy lessons and activities to help you help your students better understand the importance of how to make, manage, invest, and protect their money.

Financial Literacy Lessons & Activities

Teaching Financial Literacy
In addition to basic financial literacy, Pelletier shares with Tech & Learning how to teach students about cryptocurrency and NFTs, inflation, and other key financial concepts

TeachFinLit.org
Geared toward high school students, this resource features detailed lesson plans, complete with videos and outside sources, on topics such as budgeting and spending and credit and debt. It also offers multiple financial literacy curricula for new teachers.

Next Gen Personal Finance
A wealth of free multimedia financial curriculum resources, in addition to providing online personal development courses in finance geared specifically to teachers. Also features a virtual conference for teachers on April 5.

Understand The Personal Finance Ecosystem
The National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) offers this research-informed framework that describes the factors influencing an individual’s state of financial well-being. It focuses on understanding foundational financial factors, such as basic numeracy and problem-solving skills, plus understanding values, beliefs, socioeconomics, and more.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Financial Literacy Activities
This federal site features more than 130 activities for school-aged students, searchable by grade level, activity duration, and topics, which range from saving and investing to understanding the FAFSA and comparing financial aid offers.

Khan Academy Financial Literacy
Featuring 16 units that help to build 73 life skills, this free course guides students (at their own pace, if wanted) to understand topics such as taxes, credit, investments, car buying, and even scams to avoid.

Uncle Jed’s Barbershop
Designed for grades 3-5, this lesson focuses on the book Uncle Jed's Barbershop, about an African-American barber who, despite significant setbacks, saves enough money to buy his own barbershop. From the story, students learn about saving, savings goals, opportunity cost, and more. Also features a card game.

Next Gen Personal Finance Arcade Games
Eleven personal finance games that use arcade-style graphics, amusing characters and music to engage kids in financial scenarios they are likely to face in the near future. Topics covered include the lure of cryptocurrency, paying for college, career choices, managing credit, and more. Games are accompanied by reflection worksheets. While students don’t need an account to access games, teachers’ resources require a free, verified education account. Available in English and Spanish.

FDIC Money Smart Games
From the Federal Deposit Insurance company comes this extensive collection of financial games covering diverse subjects from credit cards to disaster planning. Presented in the style of a TV game show, each episode is hosted by Isaiah and Kiara, who guide students in playing each round and offer an occasional, fairly lame financial joke. Best for younger students who require a lot of explanation. No account required, but users can create a free account to save progress. Available in English and Spanish.

Visa’s Financial Football
Super fun, action-packed digital football game that incorporates financial literacy questions interspersed between gameplay. Users choose their favorite NFL teams to begin the game, toss the digital coin, and select defensive strategy. Games range from 5-30 minutes, with three levels of difficulty. Teachers' resources include PDF lessons and activities.

Banzai Free Interactive Financial Education
A Tech & Learning Best for Back to School 2024 award winner, Banzai’s comprehensive, easy-to-navigate financial education platform is 100% free for teachers and students. It offers personal finance courses at the elementary, middle, and high school level as well as college-and-career readiness and digital citizenship classes. All courses include games, articles, and worksheets; free printed worksheets will be mailed upon request. Currently available in English and Spanish, Banzai! is fully compliant with COPPA, FERPA, and other student privacy regulations.

Jump$tart Clearinghouse
This extensive database of financial literacy resources is searchable by format, type of resource, grade, price, language, and special-needs category. To find the many free resources, simply enter “0” in the maximum cost box. Included are lesson plans, games, workbooks, curricula, quizzes, and much more. All resources align with the National Standards for Personal Financial Education, are age appropriate, and do not attempt to promote specific financial products or services. No account is required to start using this helpful website.

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Educational technology budgets continue to be a challenge, especially with so many schools’ finances stretched thin to start. In many cases there aren’t many concrete practices to create, maintain, and update budgets to make sure funds are being used in the best ways possible.

Here we speak with Frank Murray, Director of Instructional Technology and Campus Support for Belton ISD in Belton, Texas, about the best practices schools and districts can use to help efficiently improve their technology budgets.

Weighing Your Educational Needs

In understanding how to leverage an educational technology budget, knowing what your school or district needs is important. This can help you make informed decisions during a tech audit, a budget revision, or at the end of a budget cycle. It can also reveal areas in which you may be spending too much on individual tools and programs that could be eating into your budget.

“The hardest thing is how do you make data-driven decisions on what you’re using in the school,” says Murray. “The main thing to us is usage results. What are our usage reports on devices? We use a piece of software that tells us exactly how many times a kid has logged [into a device] and how long they were there. How long they stay and whether they were on task with it. And we break that down.”

With this kind of information, Murray says schools can create realistic expectations about where the money needs to go and whether existing uses of the budget should continue or be altered.

What Obstacles Should You Prepare For?

When it comes to spending, having a clear objective in mind for your budget outcome can help you circumvent many obstacles. Focusing on services that handle similar tasks might be able to help you identify the ones you want to keep and the ones that you can stop using.

For example, Murray says, “We had three hall pass softwares for student’s digital hall passes. It tracks where they are. We had three different vendor names, three different companies for three different softwares that did the same thing. So you lose buying power there. So when you get everyone on one system, it would be cheaper for us as a district.”

Making fiscally responsible decisions on what software to allot your current budget is important, as is planning for the future.

“We should never sign on to a software or a subscription that we do not plan to use for at least three years,” Murray says. “We should have vetted the software to the point that we know it is something that we need. It’s not something that we are trying out, it’s something we need now and this is the problem it’s going to solve. So we started doing multiyear deals on a lot of our software contracts that saved between five and 20 percent.”

What happens when a vendor you want to contract for three years wants all the money upfront for the contract?

“For those who need it all upfront, we looked at financing,” Murray says. “Even with the financing, we were still able to save 20 percent on a lot of our deals. So we’re financing three years. The finance companies are paying it upfront. We’re paying the payment companies.”

How To Get the Most Out of Your Vendor Negotiations

As an educational decision-maker, it can be difficult to know whether a vendor has your best interests at heart or if they just want to make a sale. Murray suggests that before you enter into negotiations with a vendor for their services, you do your due diligence and come prepared.

“Enter negotiations with a clear understanding of your budget,” says Murray. “Know your desired outcomes and your potential alternatives. We need to research [this service] heavily before we know that this is something we will use for a while. Tell the vendors what you have to spend. That’s the kicker. You have to build a relationship with your vendors. You have to help them understand what’s going on with your budget constraints. Let them know exactly what you can afford.”

Having a firm understanding of your budget will not only help you in your negotiations with your vendors, it will also help vendors understand how they can best serve you. Vendors and educators are in this together, and having a high level of communication can benefit both sides when it comes to educational technology and budget management.

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It’s easy to separate the banking industry from the education market in our heads–privately held companies vs publicly funded entities. One failure should not impact the other, right? 

Well, in the case of Silicon Valley Bank, there are actually several implications for education entities.

What Is SVB? 

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is not really your typical bank. According to economics journalist and blogger Noah Smith, “SVB, as it’s known, was a bank that lent a lot of money to startups (or “startups,” i.e. bigger tech companies that are still private), and provided a lot of financial services to both startups and other tech companies.” 

In what is being called the first “twitter-fueled bank run,” $42 billion was withdrawn in a single day, leaving the bank with a negative $1 billion deficit. SVB was FDIC-certified, but that was not enough for the large accounts held there.

Massive venture capitalist funds were held at SVB, which meant that many accounts held at SVB were above the $250,000 threshold insured by the FDIC. This is important to note because if a bank is FDIC-certified, as SVB was, this means that the government would cover any cash the bank didn’t have up to $250,000 on every account. 

The problem in this scenario is that it is estimated that approximately 93% of accounts held at SVB had more funds in the account than $250,000. The bank and the government could not pay.

So, Why Was There A Run On SVB? 

This is where the story gets really tech 2023. According to CNN, “The staggering withdrawals unfolded at a speed enabled by digital banking and were likely fueled in part by viral panic spreading on social media platforms and, reportedly, in private chat groups.”

It was reported that Peter Thiel, a prominent startup investor, advised companies to pull their money from SVB amid concerns for financial instability. The rumors for bank runs have always moved swiftly, but in the era of social media and instant connection, the pace was greatly accelerated. 

Noah Smith again summarizes three basic possibilities here:

• a self-fulfilling prophecy 
• worries about the value of SVB’s assets 
• withdrawals due to a worsening venture capitalist investment situation 

Startups taking advice from master venture capitalists can start an avalanche of withdrawals, which is exactly what happened last week. It was truly a sight to behold, and we haven’t even talked about how the federal government stepped in. 

What Does This Mean For Education? 

Let’s look at what might have happened to some education entities had the federal government not worked to stabilize the situation.

John Bailey for Burbio does an excellent job of summarizing the specific ways this bank run would have impacted education entities: 

• A large number of education companies were impacted and potentially unable to make payroll this week if the Feds hadn't intervened. That could have disrupted curriculum, tutoring, and other services to schools. 
• SVB's clients also included nonprofits and charter schools. The inability to access funds could have impacted more than 15% of Massachusetts public charter schools, disrupting the education for more than 9,247 public school students. Some California charters also banked with SVB. 
• Telehealth companies were worried they wouldn't be able to make payroll for doctors and therapists. 
• At least 26 public pension funds (managing money for ~80 pension plans) directly hold stock in SVB Financial Group. 

These are some big things for districts to consider when selecting a bank, and we’re not out of the woods yet. John Bailey also alerts us to the fact that the immediate crisis has been averted for now but the FDIC still needs is also buyers for SVB, which it hopes to split in two. Meanwhile, First Citizens BancShares is also considering an offer for SVB, according to Bloomberg. 

It's also still unclear how much more flight there will be from regional banks to the “too big to fail” institutions. 

In the era of wildfire rumors, it is easy to get jumpy when someone of prominence questions the stability of a bank. Keep in mind the three reasons that this one happened, and make sure you are withdrawing funds for the right reasons, and maybe avoid Twitter for your banking decisions.

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With all of the challenges today, K-12 schools and districts need many things beyond what budgets provide. Yet there always seem to be budget shortfalls rather than increases. 

One way to supplement district, school, or classroom funding is by winning a grant. Grants vary in size and focus, and can make a big difference not only in the money you have to spend but also for the freedom to try new ideas.     

Tech & Learning’s free Grant Writing Guide includes resources, step-by-step proposal writing tips, checklists, and other strategies for grant-writing success. 

What follows are the grants available for K-12 schools and districts in the year ahead, and the corresponding deadlines. 

July 2022 Grants & Deadlines 

July 1
Mazda Foundation

August 2022 Grants & Deadlines  

August 30
The National Science Foundation Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program 

August 31
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Foundation Classroom Grant  

September 2022 Grants & Deadlines 

September 1
Toshiba America Foundation Science and Math Grants for Grades 6-12

September 30 
Foundation for Rural Service Annual Grant Program  

October 2022 Grants & Deadlines  

October 1
Association of American Educators Foundation Classroom Grant 

Toshiba America Foundation Science and Math Grants for Grades K-5

October 5
NSF Discovery Research PreK-12 

October 12
NSF Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Engineering and Computer Science program 

October 31  
Lawrence Foundation Education Grants
Innovative Technology Education Fund Catapult Grant

November 2022 Grants & Deadlines  

November 1
Toshiba America Foundation Science and Math Grants for Grades 6-12

December 2022 Grants & Deadlines 

December 1
ITEEA Awards and Scholarships
Toshiba America Foundation Science and Math Grants for Grades 6-12  

December 13
Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 

December 28
National Science Teachers Association Shell Science Teaching Award and the Shell Urban Science Educators Development Award 

December 31
The Slooh Space Exploration Grant  

January 2023 Grants & Deadlines  

January 21
American Chemical Society-Hach Professional Development Grant 

January 30
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and Challenger Center’s Trailblazing STEM Educator Award 

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and The Boeing Company’s Boeing Inspires Youth Engagement Program 

 January 31
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) 

February 2023 Grants & Deadlines 

February 1
Motorola Solutions Foundation Grants

February 20
NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program (S-STEM)

March 2023 Grants & Deadlines 

March 1
Association of American Educators Foundation Classroom Grant

March 15
Vernier Ecology/ Environmental Teaching Award 

March 31
Fund for Teachers Innovation Grant 

April 2023 Grants & Deadlines 

April 14
American Chemical Society (ACS)-Hach High School Chemistry Classroom Grant

April 15
America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education 

April 30 
Voya Unsung Heroes Awards Program
Lawrence Foundation Education Grants

May 2023 Grants & Deadlines 

May 1
NEA Foundation Learning & Leadership grants
Toshiba America Foundation Science and Math Grants for Grades 6-12

May 4
NCTM

May 25
ASM Foundation Living in a Material World K-!2 Education Grants

June 2023 Grants & Deadlines 

June 1
American Chemical Society (ACS)-Hach High School Chemistry Classroom Grant
Toshiba America Foundation Science and Math Grants For Grades 6-12 

June 30
The Sharon Gewirtz Kids to Concerts Fund  

Ongoing Year-Round Grants 

After School Advantage Program

Avantor Foundation Grants

Awesome Foundation

Beckman Coulter Foundation

Dollar General Literacy Foundation, Beyond Words 

Brown Rudnick Community Grants

Corning Foundation

Farrell Family Foundation Grants

Federal Grants and Programs

Lockheed Martin STEM Grants

Michael and Susan Dell Foundation Grants

Naiku Innovative Educator Grants

National Association of Biology Teachers Awards

National Education Association Foundation Grants for Educators

National Endowment for the Humanities

National Science Teaching Association Awards and Recognition Program

Reiman Foundation Grants

SC Johnson Grants

Sony Corporation of America Grants

Verizon Foundation

Westinghouse Charitable Giving Program

The Annual E-Rate Survey is Now Available 

The 2022 E-rate Applicant Survey of E-rate applicants to understand how the program can best serve schools and libraries is now available for participation. 

Organized by Funds For Learning, the annual survey provides stakeholder data directly to the Federal Communications Commission to help in the evaluation of competitive bidding regulations and the future of off-campus internet funding via the Emergency Connectivity Fund.

E-rate applicants are encouraged to submit their anonymous responses by May 27, 2022.

Always ask for a teacher discount while vacationing. 

As an adjunct professor and frequent travel writer, I’ve learned that simply asking, “Do you have an educator discount?” can often lead to savings. 

Many places say yes, and I have saved on lodging, transportation, and museum tickets. 

And after a stressful year of pandemic teaching, many educators are more eager than ever to travel. We’ve definitely earned the time off and any discounts our profession entitles us to. 

Here are some areas in particular that you are likely to find teacher discounts. 

1. Teacher Discounts at Hotels  

Teacher discounts are offered at many hotels, though these savings are often disguised as a government discount. If you work for a public school, you are a government employee and therefore entitled to a government discount. 

Hotel chains that offer this government/teacher discount include Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Hyatt, IHG, and Wyndham Hotel Group Hotels. But many more chains and smaller hotels offer a similar discount. Remember, in this instance, you may have to ask for a government discount rather than an educator discount. 

2. Teacher Discounts Through Teacher House Swap 

For the tech-savvy and adventurous teachers, house-swapping apps specifically geared to educators may be the way to go. Teacher Home Swap, for example, is only open to teachers, who are all often off around the same time, and allows them to connect with one another directly to swap or rent homes. Membership costs $100 per year.  

3. Teacher Discounts for Car Rentals and Flights 

When it comes to getting around while on vacation, there are plenty of teacher discounts out there. Car rental companies regularly offer teacher discounts for their services. NEA members can also save up to 25 percent when they rent a car through the NEA’s car rental partners, which include Enterprise and Budget. NEA members are also eligible for discounts on select domestic and international flights.  

4. Teacher Discounts for Museums  

Many museums offer educators free admission. Others offer teacher discounts that can make a significant difference, especially if you’re the type who likes to visit multiple museums per trip. For example, I was all set to pay full price during a recent visit to a museum while on vacation, but asking for the educator discount knocked off $5 from my admission and $20 off my entire bill, which included tickets for three other educators. As with other teacher discounts, these deals are not always advertised and often require you to ask.  

5. Teacher Discounts Most Places There Are Student Discounts  

If there is no teacher discount available, ask about a student discount. Many educators are still technically students who are still working their way through various grad school programs and building on the degrees they already have. Even if that’s not the case, much of the time student discounts apply to educators as well, though you’ll have to clarify that that’s the case. As with other teacher discounts, the secret is often just to ask. 

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The E-rate program, formally called The universal service Schools and Libraries Program, helps eligible U.S. schools to obtain affordable telecommunications and internet access. This year the need for such access is greater than ever, with the spike in remote learning due to Covid-19. But the requirements and paperwork may be daunting for overworked school administrators. Funds For Learning provides consulting services to guide school administrators in every aspect of e-rate compliance. 

In an effort to understand how E-rate funding can best serve modern needs of applicants and deliver feedback to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Funds For Learning has opened its 10th annual survey of E-rate applicants. The survey arrives as Congress assesses the need for additional funds to support remote learning.  

E-rate applicants are invited to submit anonymous responses from now until July 3, 2020. Survey response data inform key policymakers and administrative members in maintaining the value of the E-rate program, and adapting funding to meet stakeholder needs.  

“Keeping individuals connected to the internet has never been more important, as recent events have so poignantly demonstrated,” said John Harrington, CEO at Funds For Learning. “It’s essential that leaders and decision makers in Washington D.C. hear from applicants, and our survey is an opportunity to submit feedback easily and confidentially.”  

Over the course of the survey’s 10-year history, the E-rate program has seen an increase in demand and efficiency. This year, the first wave of funding committed following the close of the 2020 filing window was the highest amount ever awarded to applicants.   

Survey results will be shared in the E-rate Trends Report, which is submitted into the official docket for review by FCC staff, circulated to Congress and the media, and shared with the general public.  

Participation in last year’s survey and report was a record high, with 1,763 applicants from every state and territory completing the survey, representing about eight percent of all school and library E-rate applicants nationwide.  

The 2020 E-rate Applicant Survey can be found here. 

Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta) and its IT services division, All Covered, announces a new partnership with Future Ready Schools® as the sole sponsor of its school board strand.  

Future Ready Schools is an initiative of the Alliance for Excellent Education that helps traditional public, charter and private school leaders make sound financial decisions regarding the acquisition of digital tools to transform teaching and learning. The organization seeks to work with Konica Minolta and All Covered to ensure school boards and district administrators have access to current, relevant information and effective resources to support sound decisions relating to strategic planning, leadership, and building a culture of innovation in America’s schools. 

“Through this partnership with Konica Minolta and All Covered, Future Ready Schools will help school board members build stronger connections to their communities, support a culture of innovation within their schools and promote a vision for teaching and learning that is student-centered, forward-thinking and designed to meet the vast needs of today’s learners,” said Deb Delisle, President and CEO of the Alliance for Excellent Education.

Why do we pay taxes? What do taxes pay for? Who is required to pay them? On this Tax Day (4/15), investigate all about taxes in this Schoolhouse Rock video! Sing along with the song to learn about taxes,   why we have them, and why we should pay them.  

Courtesy of Knovation  

Glimpse K12 launched today a solution designed to help schools benchmark spending and reduce costs through group buying power. Called Bundle, it provides schools and school districts with insights on peer-school spending and provides the opportunity to group with other schools and districts for better buying power and lower pricing.

Traditionally, schools’ purchase process for goods and services has been opaque, with wide disparities in pricing for the exact same products and services - vendors often just charge what the school has budgeted. Bundle is designed to help schools ensure they are getting the best pricing from vendors. Users can even set alerts when they have their eye on a certain product or platform, so they know when a group purchase opportunity is available.

Cullman City Schools is one school district evaluating Bundle. “Gaining a better understanding of what our peers are spending will be an enormous help as we negotiate and re-negotiate vendor pricing for the 2019-2020 school year,” said Susan Patterson, Superintendent of Cullman City Schools. “We think this data will help us reduce costs across several key areas, we think by as much as 30 percent. We’re excited to leverage group buying opportunities in the Bundle marketplace – it’s a major step forward.”

Bundle integrates with schools’ financial accounting systems, aggregating the data so that schools across the network can see what their peers have spent per student on different products and services, and even for specific vendors.

To learn more about Bundle, visit https://www.bundlek12.com.

People's Pie

Federal budget game's challenge delivers powerful message 

Pros: Intriguing balancing-act gameplay will bring students back for more.

Cons: It's tough without adjustable difficulty, so some students might not make the cut.

Bottom Line: Federal budgeting -- and its unique ethical and mathematical balancing act -- fits game-based fiddling and strategizing well, but expect a challenge.

Read more here.

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education  

Next Gen Personal Finance

Straightforward finance site is brimming with resources for teachers

Pros: Immediately useful lessons, materials with a broad range of uses, and valuable professional development options.

Cons: Most materials aren't visually compelling; assessments are accessible only to those with teacher accounts.

Bottom Line: This is a useful, high-quality, well-organized resource for teachers putting together short personal finance lessons or entire curricula.

[A Clean Interface With Intuitive View of Arithmetic]

Read more.

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

By Common Sense Education