McAuliffe announces new series to prepare students for higher education, managing debt

Governor Terry McAuliffe today announced a new series for middle and high school teachers and counselors that will support Virginia’s students as they plan to obtain a post-secondary degree or credential.

Life After High School: Navigating education, career and debt was developed in partnership with the Virginia Council on Economic Education (VCEE), its affiliated university-based Centers for Economic Education, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. The program is provided at no charge to Virginia teachers or school divisions through support from the Fund for Teaching Excellence.

“Providing Virginia students with the skills they need to make fiscally-sound decisions is critical to their success in higher ed and beyond,” said Governor McAuliffe. “The knowledge our educators will gain from this series will help them prepare our young people to become smart, savvy consumers who are ready to achieve their goals and contribute to the new Virginia economy.”

Pilot sessions of the new series were launched in the fall and reached over 100 middle and high school teachers and counselors. With 110 additional educators set to participate this Spring, the program expects to collectively reach an estimated 36,000 students by the end of the school year.

“With this new series, our teachers and counselors will have access to the training they need to best advise students as they pursue a variety of higher education opportunities,” said Secretary of Education Dietra Trent.“This new series will make it easier for students and their families to make life-changing decisions with the best information available.”

In addition to this new series, a case study exercise developed by the Financial Planning Association (FPA) student chapter at Virginia Tech was just released to be part of the 2017 Governor’s Challenge in Economics and Personal Finance, an online and ‘live’ competition for high school students. Teachers can use the case study with their students regardless of whether they participate in the Governor’s Challenge.

“We are glad to see a case study that focuses on Life After High School,” said VCEE Executive Director Daniel Mortensen. “Having students both reinforce and build their knowledge around good decision making skills will help them succeed in the future.”

Teachers, counselors and school divisions interested in learning more about this new series and registering can visit the website here.