High schools across the country are about to have access to an exciting online personal finance course, thanks to the American Financial Services Association Education Foundation (AFSAEF). Better yet, the schools will be able to use the course free of charge.

The new AFSAEF program, called MoneySKILL, is a highly interactive, reality based Internet curriculum designed to teach personal finance. This course consists of 36 modules that students complete in approximately 40 minutes per module. Content areas include Income, Expenses, Assets, Liabilities and Risk Management.

MoneySKILL's author is Professor Lewis Mandell, Ph.D., Professor of Finance at State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo. With top-notch graphics and narration from a team of professional actors, the program compels students to absorb progressively more difficult material and answer questions to demonstrate their mastery of the curriculum. To pass the course, students not only have to answer most of the questions correctly. They also must create a personal, lifetime financial plan for themselves that is evaluated by the intelligence built into MoneySKILL. If their plan is not viable, they are sent to a "crash and burn" unit to make repairs to their simulated plan before they embark upon their real financial plan after graduation.

"MoneySKILL's intent was to create an effective and attractive financial learning tool which would be made available at no cost to high schools," says Susie Irvine, AFSAEF's president and chief executive officer. "Ultimately, this financial education program will be made available nationwide on the Internet to every school requesting it."

While this program is a powerful tool for combating financial education deficiency among students, they won't be the sole beneficiaries. It can also help teachers who may not have expertise in financial education, but who will supervise the course. To prepare for instruction, every teacher will go through the program, using the self-scoring process to learn where additional preparation may be necessary.

The positive response from educational institutions demonstrates the fundamental gap that exists in financial education, a gap that MoneySKILL hopes to fill. In August, Mandell gave two demonstrations of MoneySKILL. One was to some 50 high school teachers from New York City and the surrounding areas. The teachers gathered for a two-day training session in personal finance sponsored by and held at the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

The other demonstration was to a group of about 50 high school teachers participating in a summer program for personal economics in Madison, Wisconsin. Sponsored by the Madison-based CBM Foundation, which also helped fund the creation of MoneySKILL, the Wisconsin program is co-directed by the state's department of financial institutions.

Additionally, Susie Irvine, President and CEO of AFSAEF gave MoneySKILL demonstrations to teachers in Michigan and South Carolina. More than 100 teachers attended the Michigan Jump$tart Coalition Teacher Training at the Detroit Federal Reserve Bank in August, while teachers from Greenville, SC attended a MoneySKILL training sessions on how to incorporate MoneySKILL into their classroom. High school teachers from Greenville also participated in the pilot testing of the curriculum conducted via the Internet during the 2003 academic school year.

This spring, students in 50 Upstate New York high schools will have the opportunity to learn financial literacy in a rigorous fashion. High school seniors in Albany, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse will start to use MoneySKILL for Teens, a 38 module pilot initiative designed specifically for young adults. Economics and business teachers will offer the self-educational program to their students.

In addition to presentations across the country, the United States Congress has also welcomed AFSAEF's personal finance curriculum. Irvine presented MoneySKILL as part of a panel entitled "Fostering Financial Literacy for all Americans" for the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference. Congresswoman Julia Carson held this forum so the panelists could discuss how to make sound financial education accessible to all Americans, especially students and those struggling with debt.

"The genesis of many economic problems facing consumers is limited understanding of basic personal finance," said Carson. "The reality is children and young adults face a complex array of financial decisions. There is an education gap for young people in the area of personal finance, and I am pleased to see the American Financial Services Association Education Foundation filling that gap with the MoneySKILL program. I look forward to furthering our mutual goal of fostering financial literacy for young people."

Irvine says she expects MoneySKILL to be "officially" rolled out early next year, with limited use to begin in the next few weeks. In the meantime, word has gotten out about the new program, with educators, non-profit organizations, consumer groups and corporate human resource departments located in 23 states expressing interest.

Said Stephen Brobeck, the Executive Director of the Consumer Federation of America, "MoneySKILL represents a powerful tool for providing effective financial education to students in the classroom. It is easy for instructors to use but effective in teaching material and assessing student learning."

For additional information, contact Susie Irvine, President and CEO, Phone: (202) 466-8611. E-mail: susieirvine@moneyskill.org.