State treasurer urges parents to teach children about money

By submitted, 04/28/20 3:53 PM

LITTLE ROCK – Treasurer of State Dennis Milligan is encouraging families to talk to their children about money and finances. Milligan announced his financial education initiative “Educate Your Financial Future,” to commemorate Financial Literacy Month, which occurs each year in April. The new initiative will focus on teaching children in grades pre-K through 12^th about saving money and spending wisely.

“As Treasurer of State, my responsibility as the state’s banker includes managing millions of state and local tax monies that flow through our office on a daily basis. A basic understanding of financial knowledge is a critical tool that we all must learn if we want to be successful,” Milligan said. “I want to empower all Arkansans to take charge of their financial future, so I’m excited about starting this journey with Arkansas parents for their children.”

Milligan created the AR Finance AR Future program during his first year in office in order to help address the lack of financial education in schools. The program targeted students in fourth- through sixth-grades across Arkansas and taught basic concepts of spending, saving and investing money.

With a nationwide trend toward encouraging financial literacy among young people, Milligan is working to grow the AR Finance AR Future program with this new book-reading initiative.

“I’m so passionate about financial education and teaching kids from a young age the value of a dollar,” Milligan said. “Little talks about money, even if they seem insignificant, make a big impact on our children’s future financial success – as well as our state’s.”

Each month, Treasurer Milligan will read a financial education book to children via his YouTube channel, and will release a list of suggested books for the month for parents to read to their children.

This month’s books are listed below. A description of each book will be available on the Treasury’s website, Facebook and Twitter accounts:

“One Cent, Two Cents, Old Cent, New Cent,” by Bonnie Worth

“A Dollar For Penny,” by Julie Glass

“The King’s Chessboard,” by David Birch

“The Go-Around Dollar,” by Barbara Johnston Adams

“Bunny Money,” by Stephen Krensky