Lawyers know the basic real-world financial facts—how credit cards and checking accounts work; the real effects of 21 percent interest and late fees; the differences between sales and leases; what the word “secured” means in reference to mortgages and cars; the downside of repo and foreclosure if things go very bad; the surprising differences between gross and net pay and other tax issues; differences among retirement plans (or lack thereof); medical insurance costs and coverage; and many other financial facts. But most students coming out of high school know few of these facts. They just know the marketing hype they see around them.

Lawyer volunteers from the Houston Bar Association’s Bankruptcy Section put on presentations of the MoneyWise Program to Houston area high school classes. The MoneyWise Program contains the basics of financial literacy in a brisk 45-minute discussion format. It features a FlashPoint presentation with a carefully scripted teaching outline, along with a sample credit report and household budget showing income and expense categories, and a set of vehicle lease and purchase documents. No prior experience with financial literacy or high school students is needed.

The MoneyWise Program is approved by the Texas Education Association to meet the requirements for financial literacy education. It is sponsored in the Houston area by bankruptcy judges Karen Brown and Jeff Bohm, and is presented by the combined volunteer forces of the HBA Bankruptcy Section and the Miller/Foltz Bankruptcy Inns of Court. These groups coordinate with the State Bar Bankruptcy Section, the state-wide sponsor for MoneyWise. Henry Flores is the volunteer coordinator for the HBA Bankruptcy Section, and Mark Davis coordinates for the Miller/Foltz Inn.

More than 30 lawyers are on the current volunteer list to make presentations. Volunteers (usually in teams of two) take on a commitment to present the program in two or three classes at a particular high school on a particular day, generally talking with senior-level students in economics or social studies classes. Volunteers have made as many as six class presentations in a day.

Volunteers also make the MoneyWise presentation to teacher in-service training sessions, umbrella organizations for students, and to youth leadership organizations (including those associated with local colleges). Presentations go on during the school year and during summer school sessions.

MoneyWise volunteers have not just been found in classrooms. The program was developed in 2004-2005 by lawyer members of the State Bar Bankruptcy Section, in response to major changes that were about to be made to the Bankruptcy Code. Bankruptcy lawyers statewide did more than fret about the upcoming changes—they developed a program of financial literacy to keep people out of bankruptcy altogether. When the Texas legislature passed the financial literacy requirement for high schools, commercial financial literacy handbook providers gathered to lobby for their products. The State Bar bankruptcy section was there too, and won approval for its volunteer-developed program. Volunteers are also working hard to spread awareness of the program and to get cooperation from individual high school administrators to get the program into classrooms, complete with volunteer lawyer presenters.

Ann Zeigler practices in the bankruptcy section of HughesWattersAskanase, LLP. She is a member of the HBA Bankruptcy Section and Legal Trends associate editor of The Houston Lawyer.

 

 

HBA Criminal Law Section Works with Adopted School

By Maxine Goodman

The HBA’s Criminal Law and Procedure Section adopted Clifton Middle School in HISD and, throughout the year, has worked to educate the school’s parents and students about the criminal justice system and our legal system in general. In partnership with the school’s faculty and administration, the section undertook four main objectives this year: 1) illustrating and discussing the dangers and possibilities of middle school students getting involved in criminal activity and how to avoid that involvement; 2) educating students about the Constitution and legal system; 3) talking at career night about options in law and criminal justice, and 4) teaching about internet safety.Activities included several day-long large group discussions with parents and students concerning Internet safety, common violations for juveniles, the basic sources and summary of our laws and Constitution, and parents’ knowledge and role in helping keep their kids out of the criminal justice system. The section also offers bilingual speakers, given the substantial population of Spanish-speaking parents at Clifton. The section plans to continue this wonderful partnership with Clifton next year.

“Our section, in an effort to personally contribute to the community, found an invaluable opportunity at Clifton to talk with young people and their parents about staying out of the criminal justice system, as well as directing them to be part of the solutions to our problems in their career choices,” said Judge Denise Collins, section chair. “It is practical, exciting and fun, and we look forward to working with them again in the fall.”

Maxine Goodman is a professor at South Texas College of Law and a member of The Houston Lawyer editorial board.

 

 

Middle School Students Receive a Crash Course in the Stock Market

By Nelson S. Ebaugh

“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”
Chinese Proverb

Investing in the stock market is somewhat of a mystery to a lot of people. But, thanks to the HBA Securities Litigation and Arbitration Section, students at B.C. Elmore Middle School are getting a jump start on how to invest in the stock market. Earlier this year, the HBA Securities Litigation and Arbitration Section organized a stock market project for a seventh-grade math class. Now these seventh-grade students know that what they learn in their math class could help them secure an income through prudent investing.

Linda Broocks, the chair of the Securities Litigation and Arbitration Section, organized the project. She recruited members of the section to lead classroom discussions about investing through the stock market. These attorneys in turn recruited stockbrokers to co-present with them to the students. Then, once a week, an attorney-stockbroker team would lead the class in a discussion about prudent investing.

As part of the program, each student receives $5,000 in imaginary money to make investments in the market. The students purchase and sell stocks with their imaginary funds, keeping ledgers of their respective trades and thereby sharpening their math skills by calculating gains, losses, or both. At the end of the program, the student whose investments have appreciated the most will win a cash prize. As part of the program, the students also prepare papers on what they have learned from the stock market project. Members of the section review these papers and will award cash prizes to the authors of the two best papers. To top it off, the Section gives each student a copy of the book entitled The Young Investor: Projects and Activities for Making Your Money Grow.

One of the most important lessons that the students have learned from this project is that the sooner they start saving, the sooner their money can start working for them. In addition, the students have learned firsthand how important it is to diversify investments.

All of the attorneys and stockbrokers that have participated in the project have been impressed with the students, Broocks said. Occasionally, when an attorney or stockbroker posed a question to the class, every single hand in the classroom went up. The students’ eagerness to learn motivated the attorneys and stockbrokers to share as much as they could.

The best part about the stock market project was that the volunteers knew that their contribution to the project was perhaps the start of something bigger. Many of the students at B.C. Elmore Middle School, which also is the HBA’s adopted school, come from underprivileged neighborhoods in Houston. The volunteers hope that the stock market project will inspire each of these students to consider prudent investing as a method of supplementing their income in the future.

Nelson S. Ebaugh is a member of the HBA Securities Litigation and Arbitration Section and a member of The Houston Lawyer editorial board.