When I filed my blog entry the other day about how the insurance industry should launch an initiative to educate high school students about the basics of coverage, I totally forgot about the noble efforts of the Insurance Education Institute, which talked about their program in one of last year's editions of NU! Click on to read the exchange I had with their dedicated president, Larry Forrester. As Larry outlines, they do fine work, but they need more support for sure to make a dent in this problem. I will help publicize their cause as best I can. The rest is up to the industry. Sorry, Larry!

From Larry L. Forrester, President & CEO of the Insurance Education Institute:

Sam, I was puzzled and surprised to see your comments on your blog regarding the industry's need to educate consumers, and the fact that the industry was not taking the initiative to provide that education–especially since you and I have discussed the Insurance Education Institute programs to educate young people about insurance, risk management and career opportunities.

You may recall the articles in NU back in April 2005 and on Nov. 27, 2006, talking about the program and mission of the IEI.

Once I got over my organizational hurt feelings that no one seems to know about the industry's initiative to educate young people about insurance, I realize that we have done a lousy job of telling the industry what the IEI is doing to educate tomorrow's consumer about insurance and managing risk.

Help!!!!

In 2006 alone, we educated 204 high school teachers about insurance and sent them back to the classroom armed with lesson plans, resources and accurate knowledge on how insurance works.

We project those 204 teachers will teach over 15,000 students about insurance in one academic year.

Teachers are logging on to the IEI website (www.theiei.org) downloading lesson plans and resources from organizations such as the III at the rate of 80,000 per month.

Each month over 2,000 high school teachers download lesson plans on auto, homeowners, life, health and careers in insurance.

Just in the last 18 months 2,500 DVDs titled Risk Responsibility Reality, produced by the IEI, have been mailed to high school teachers for use in the classroom.

Just yesterday I made a presentation about what the insurance industry is doing to educate young people about insurance, to the Financial Literacy and Education Commission, which was also attended by the Secretary of the Treasury.

The Commission was created by Congress in 2004 to launch financial literacy programs focused on all age groups. The Administrator for the Commission, Dan Iannicola, carried the IEI message recently to Japan and Turkey.

An organization called Jump$tart was formed by the financial services industry 10 years ago to address financial literacy. The IEI is not only a board member, but in 2006 convinced the coalition to incorporate insurance into their high school standards for financial education.

Jump$tart is the primary source for curriculum development for financial education in the high schools. At least 10 states have now adopted the standards.

The IEI is funded by over 200 insurance companies and seven of the top 10.

SAM RESPONDS:
I sincerely apologize for my brain-lock in forgetting about the noble efforts of your group.

However, while not minimizing what you are doing, these numbers, you must admit, are a relative dent in the problem, with tens of thousands of teachers and millions of students out there.

Its a start, but it should be part of every curriculum nationwide, part of the standard curriculum, along with teaching on other personal finance issues.

I'll help in any way I can to promote awareness of your program, starting with another article soon in the pages of NU!

LARRY GETS THE LAST WORD:
I agree, Sam, however we have learned that regardless of how important we think the subject is, the academic curriculum is under such pressure from “No Child Left Behind” and other demands to improve performance and outcomes that teachers and administrators are resistant to incorporating any curriculum that requires a new course of study.

Our approach is to develop material that can be incorporated into current curriculum of courses such as business, economics, math, family and consumer science and driver training.

We have seen success, and the number of teachers responding by adding insurance content is growing exponentially.

In addition, we have partnered with student organizations–such as the Distributive Clubs of America (with over 200,000 student members), the Business Professionals of America (with over 50,000 student members), Junior Achievement (two million students)–to incorporate insurance content.

With DECA and BPA we are developing competitive events focused on insurance topics and issues.

The final point is that you can do about anything with enough money. I can tell you I have met with the CEOs or senior officers of all of the major insurance companies.

As noted, most are supportive, but the IEI still operates with a budget of about $1 million.

Special Reports /

My Apologies To The Insurance Education Institute

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