Teach Children to Save Day will be celebrated in a number of schools throughout Santa Barbara County on Tuesday. Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum and Rob Skinner, chief operating officer of Montecito Bank & Trust, will pair up to teach a sixth-grade class at Franklin School, 1111 E. Mason St. The bank’s entire executive management team, including president and chief executive officer Janet Garufis, will teach in various classrooms throughout the day.
The goals of the day include teaching children the importance of saving, how to plan for their purchases and how to make their money grow. Older students will learn how to make their money grow with compound interest, budgeting for things like college and buying a car, and some credit-card basics.
Montecito Bank & Trust associates will visit nearly 750 students, in 34 classrooms, from first grade through 12th, covering 12 different schools in Carpinteria, Summerland, Santa Barbara and Goleta. In addition to Franklin, the program includes Aliso, Ellwood, La Patera, McKinley, Mountain View and Summerland schools, La Colina and La Cumbre junior highs; Santa Barbara High; and Marymount of Santa Barbara and Notre Dame School.
National Teach Children to Save Day is part of the American Bankers Association Education Foundation’s Teach Children to Save Program. Each year thousands of bankers across the nation trade in their balance sheets for blackboards to help fill the need for financial education in schools. Since the outreach day began in 1997, thousands of bankers have taught money skills to more than 1 million students. The official national date is April 21, but local school testing schedules forced the switch to Tuesday.
“Studies show that kids aren’t learning the skills they need to make smart financial decisions as adults,” Garufis said. “Communities and schools teach other life skills, such as driving a car, but we don’t spend enough time teaching financial skills. Bankers are in the schools today to help fill that gap and prepare tomorrow’s adults for financial success. This is more critical today than ever.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Laurie Jervis can be reached at ljervis@noozhawk.com.