They are teenage spendthrifts turned penny pinchers, confessing fast-food compulsions and expenses on their parents' credit cards. They are Jennifer Gibson's financial planning class, part of a generation growing up amid recession, bailouts, overhauls and mounting debt.
Classes like the one in Frisco are being offered across the country as students and administrators recognize a lapse in financial literacy among American youth. But the personal finance classes are discretionary. Only a handful of states require them.
Texas tucks these lessons into its economics curriculum and does not test students on the material. Without continued emphasis, financial literacy experts warn, students will fall into the same pattern of overdraft fees and lackluster savings as the generation before them.
"The financial crisis taught us a very valuable lesson," said Annamaria Lusardi, the director of the Financial Literacy Center and a professor of economics at Dartmouth College. "We'll either pay by educating or pay by rescuing."
Students aren't oblivious to their parents' missteps or their own monetary ignorance. Classes such as Gibson's -- how-to lessons that break down managing budgets and setting aside savings -- are growing in popularity. Two years ago, Frisco ISD dropped financial planning because of lack of interest.
Now, 50 students already have signed up to take the course next year. But until states prioritize teacher training and establish stricter requirements, Lusardi said, these classes remain a rarity.
Only three states require a full semester of personal finance, with 18 others requiring it in other subject matter. Texas passed legislation in 2005 that incorporates financial literacy lessons into existing courses.
That's not enough, said Vickie Mauldin, the chief executive officer of First Command Education Foundation, who calls it an unfunded mandate. "You put that in an economics class that is a full semester, so how much time are they really devoting to this curriculum?" she said.
The Fort Worth-based organization creates free curriculum for use in the state's schools. This year the nonprofit printed 20,000 copies for students in North Texas. Next year, she's targeting 186,000 students in the state's major metropolitan areas.
"This should be a mandatory class on its own," she said. "You can teach chemistry and biology, but if you can't manage money you are destined for problems in life. We are setting up future consumers for failure."
High school seniors know less about finance today, according to a biennial survey by JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy. That survey saw a drop in correct answers from 57.3% in 1997 to 48.3% in 2008.
The Bush administration tried to alter these figures by launching an Advisory Council on Financial Literacy two years ago. And the current Department of Education has discussed how to emphasize financial literacy in its restructuring of the No Child Left Behind Act.
"I think it's going to stick," said Laura Levine, the executive director of the JumpStart Coalition. "People who grew up in the Depression era remained frugal and cautious throughout their lives. People aren't going to quickly revert back to spending too much and saving too little. They're going to remember this lesson for a while."
Financial institutions are even getting involved.
Tax-service provider H&R Block has donated more than $1 million in personal finance curriculum. Locally, Plano-based ViewPoint Bank hosts occasional financial literacy lessons in North Texas classrooms.
"When seniors go to college they are bombarded with credit card offers," said Kim Weaver-McDonald, the bank's vice president of community development.
Automated teller machines, online account management and instant transfers conspire to make it even easier to get into trouble, she said.
Quick-hit outreach provides a general understanding, she said, but it doesn't compare with regular lessons that can be infused into piggy-bank discussions as early as kindergarten.
The challenge lies in forcing that time, said Mathew Frost, who has created real-life budget scenarios in his economics and U.S. history classes at Sunset High School in Dallas.
He paired up students and gave them a combined income ranging from $21,000 to $46,000. Then he had them select cards labeled with life's surprises -- a pregnancy, a fire in the kitchen, a lost job. His juniors and seniors balked about higher rent, but they weighed it against crime rates. They considered health insurance for their infant over cellphone coverage. They came to understand the difference between needs and wants, wrote one boy in a final paper.
"We need to know this, and if we don't we'll end up where we were before," Frost said.
Gibson, the Frisco financial planning teacher, is part friend, part drill sergeant when she speaks to her class about bargain shopping.
"Most people in American have debt issues," she warned. "You don't want to end up like that. That's why you are taking this class."
Connor Zetsche, nodded his head in confessional acknowledgment. The Centennial High senior shared stories of money lost to T-shirts and baseball games.
"It makes you more aware," said the 17-year-old, who discussed his bank account proudly. "I never even thought about the stock market until the economy went bad."
