John PelletierBurlington, Vermont - December 6, 2010
Champlain College in Burlington opened a new center Monday with the aim of educating Vermonters about their finances.
The college says the economic recession highlighted just how little most people understand their finances. The new Center for Financial Literacy will start with three main programs -- a training for teachers so they can educate students about savings and debt; training for students, including college kids; and a program that allows college students to access their credit score and find out how to protect it.
"If you have a financially literate populous, you should have a more vibrant economy. Simple things like increasing the savings rate. If you increase the savings rate and people have that buffer to protect themselves all that money is now available to the economy," said the center's John Pelletier.
So far the center has raised 188-thousand dollars, which should fund its programming for three years.
Bianca Slota - WCAX News
