Ellington

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — State Treasurer Lynn Fitch says she wants to help Mississippi young people become more comfortable with handling their finances.

Fitch is pushing a computerized financial literacy program in schools across Mississippi called Treasurer's Education About Money.

"We're doing this to get them a critical life skill they so need. It's important that they understand money," Fitch said Thursday during a stop in Tupelo.

Fitch has been traveling the state to promote the program.

Fitch said the program will be user friendly and applicable to the classrooms across the state. She said teachers will be trained to discuss personal finance, and the course will be accessible online.

The computer-based lessons will be offered through the company EverFi and could be incorporated into a variety of courses. Teachers can have students work through them at school or could assign them as homework.

The program is available for free to public and private schools, thanks to a partnership between Fitch's office and several sponsors. It initially will be for high schools, but Fitch said they hope to later expand it to elementary and middle schools.

"So, what we are doing here with this public-private partnership is making it available to every high school public, private, parochial, to those children who would like to be learning about that life skill," said Fitch.

The Treasurer's Education About Money program will include lessons on such topics as credit scores, insurance, credit cards, taxes, investing, mortgages and savings.

"Our young people are afraid of money," Fitch said. "They are afraid of how to handle their finances. We need to empower them."