VILONIA -- State Treasurer Dennis Milligan said Wednesday that he wants to help improve the financial literacy of students through an interactive, Web-based financial education program.
The Benton Republican's office signed an agreement nearly three months ago with Washington, D.C.-based EverFi Inc. for the office to sponsor a digital learning course about understanding money on the company's platform in grades four through six. The course covers saving, budgeting, responsibility, decision-making, credit and debt, careers, income and charity.
EverFi Inc. will be paid $450,000 over four years under the agreement that the treasurer office's chief information officer Gary Underwood signed Aug. 7, according to a copy of the seven-page agreement.
Milligan told more than two dozen sixth-grade students in a computer lab at the Frank Mitchell Intermediate School in Vilonia that he's "very excited" about his initiative to bring financial education to elementary school students.
He said the program is called "AR Finance. AR Future."
"I think it is going to be a program [in which] you will actually learn financial literacy. I think it is going to be a program that's going to help enhance your future," Milligan told the students.
"When we have the folks in Washington, D.C., that can't balance their checkbooks, y'all will be prepared to be able to do that," he said. "Our goal is 75 schools in the first year that we can get on this program.
"If you don't know how to spend your money, save your money and invest your money, the chance is you are not going to be a success," Milligan said in Vilonia, a day after visiting Monitor Elementary School in Springdale, which also is participating in the program.
EverFi Inc. will be paid $75,000 in the first year, $100,000 in the second year, $125,000 in the third year and $150,000 in the fourth year under the agreement.
By the end of the agreement, the treasurer's office wants the program to be offered in at least 225 public, private and parochial schools, Milligan spokesman Grant Wallace said in an interview.
About 10 Arkansas schools are using the program, said Trey Medbery, vice president of EverFi Inc.
At Frank Mitchell Intermediate School, computer lab manager Lori Daves said about 275 sixth-grade students are in their second week of the program.
They spend 40 minutes a week in the computer lab and they'll focus exclusively on the program in the lab for the next six to eight weeks, she said.
"The kids seem to enjoy it. It's interactive. It keeps them entertained," Daves said. "I think it will be great if they can learn responsible choices with money. I think they all need that. Sixth grade may be a little early."
Milligan said he doesn't believe that this $450,000 expenditure in the next four years will lead the state to increase taxes.
"Absolutely not. This is something that is well within the capabilities of our budget and we feel like day in and day out the return that Arkansas is going to get over the years is going to be a massive return," he said.
Wallace said the treasurer office's annual budget is about $5.3 million.
He said that "we will be reaching out to those in the private sector, such as the banking community and investment community, to find additional partners to help with this program."
Wallace said Milligan learned about the program "through our association with the [National Association of State Treasurers] and hearing from our counterparts in Mississippi and South Carolina" and "we then asked them to present a proposal to our office for bringing the program to Arkansas."
Metro on 10/29/2015