NEW YORK, NY, APRIL 18, 2024—In an effort to support the needs of its teachers facing increased financial stress. Teach For America (TFA) has enhanced its teacher training program to feature personal finance as a key component. TFA has committed to provide free financial wellness training and support for 3,500 current TFA teachers through a collaboration with The Jump$tart Coalition (Jump$tart) supported by a $550,000 grant from Charles Schwab and its founder (Schwab).

Research, conducted by TFA, indicated that 61% of corps members have little confidence or understanding of financial wellness and lack awareness of the financial support resources available to them. Jump$tart, TFA and Schwab aim to educate current and future corps members with tangible guidance to manage their money with confidence. 

“Although our corps members initially commit to two years with us, their impact is felt for a lifetime. Providing them with financial literacy resources is aligned with our goal to ensure the teaching profession is sustainable and allows our educators to explore career pathways with us,” said Dr. Nathalie Henderson, Executive Vice President, Corps Member and Alumni Leadership Development at Teach For America.

The grant seeks to alleviate some of the financial stressors common to educators by expanding access to content and resources provided by Jump$tart Financial Foundations for Educators (J$FFE) professional development program, and incorporated into TFA’s onboarding and training program. The pre-service training prepares TFA teachers to demonstrate the heart of TFA’s work: culturally relevant pedagogy, anti-racist teacher leadership, and a universal design for learning and social-emotional learning. Support for its educators is critical to making that viable and sustainable.

“We’re delighted to work with our long-time partner, the Charles Schwab Foundation, to bring interactive, online personal finance education to Teach for America.  We believe J$FFE Online is an ideal complement to the training offered by Teach For America because it is designed to improve teachers’ own level of financial literacy and confidence – benefiting them as consumers as well as educators,” said  Laura Levine, President and CEO of the Jump$tart Coalition. 

J$FFE is a highly-rated content-based professional development program for teachers, designed to improve financial knowledge and confidence. The program implemented for TFA includes:

• Four modules with 3-5 lessons each: saving and spending, investing, credit and debt, and risk management
• Specialized training for designated TFA coaches to provide ongoing feedback and 1:1 support to corps members

About Teach For America 

Teach For America works in partnership with nearly 250 urban and rural communities across the country to expand educational opportunity for children. Founded in 1990, Teach For America recruits and develops a diverse corps of outstanding leaders who make an initial two-year commitment to teach in high-need schools and become lifelong leaders in the effort to end educational inequity. Today, Teach For America is a force of 67,000 alumni and corps members working in more than 9,000 schools nationwide in pursuit of profound systemic change. From classrooms to districts to state houses across America, they are reimagining education to realize the day when every child has an equal opportunity to learn, lead, thrive, and co-create a future filled with possibility. Teach For America is a proud member of the AmeriCorps national service network. For more information, visit teachforamerica.org and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. 

About the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy®

Jump$tart Financial Foundations for Educators Online covers all areas of personal finance and is based on the J$FFE Model, designed by an alliance of financial education experts from seven non-profit and government stakeholders, that aligns with the national standards, and introduces teachers to additional resources from the Clearinghouse.

Press Contact:

Mercedes Blue | (706) 566-1452 | Mercedes.Blue@teachforamerica.org