BLOOMSBURG – The state Auditor General Timothy DeFoor visited Bloomsburg University Tuesday as part of his campaign to promote financial literacy in all age groups. He also said he had another purpose for speaking to the university’s Zeigler College of Business students – his office is losing a lot of its experienced workers to retirement and he needs to recruit new interns to fill their shoes.
His major selling point? “One of the things that’s so great about working for state government,” he said, “is that for 10 years, you don’t have to pay on your student loans. So, you come to a place like the auditor general’s office, gain all that experience, have your pension vested and you don’t have to worry about paying off your student loans for 10 years.”
The Auditor General said financial literacy is important to everyone, not just people who work in math-related fields, “Financial literacy is something you’re going to need for your entire life: to balance your checkbook, to buy a car, to buy a house, to understand and manage your pension, your Social Security, and it’s something I’ve always felt that our students just aren’t getting.”
Defoor said these skills can be taught at an early age and it should be part of the state’s public school curriculum guidelines, “All the states surrounding Pennsylvania – New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey – in all those states it’s mandatory that financial literacy be taught from kindergarten through twelfth grade.”
The Auditor General said he’ll be visiting a number of campuses throughout the state in his efforts to promote financial literacy.
