IN JANUARY 2008, President Bush signed an executive order creating the first President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy. The order creating this nonpartisan group, chaired by brokerage executive Charles Schwab, established the encouragement of financial literacy among citizens as a policy of the federal government.

The council recently submitted its 2008 annual report containing 15 recommendations for improving financial literacy through our schools, colleges and universities, businesses, nonprofits and government.

Perhaps symbolically, the first recommendation of the council is that “the United States Congress or state legislatures should mandate financial education in all schools for students in grades Kindergarten through 12.” While many school districts have admirable ad-hoc initiatives addressing students’ financial-literacy needs, a minority of states has mandated financial literacy in the classroom. According to the latest Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy summary of state financial-education requirements, only three states require at least one course devoted to personal finance as a graduation requirement and seventeen states require personal-finance instruction incorporated into other subjects such as economics.

Yet these requirements exist almost exclusively at the high-school level; and except for progressive initiatives in such states as Mississippi, Tennessee and Kansas, not enough is being done to truly integrate financial literacy across the K-12 spectrum. This issue is not new. The Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Education (OFE) issued a white paper in 2002 promoting the integration of financial education by using reading and math lessons as a vehicle for teaching personal-finance topics in grades K-12. The OFE reported, “Just as our schools do not teach children to read without first teaching them the letters of the alphabet or to do long division without first teaching them to count, the same should hold true for financial education.”

More recently, the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) articulated a goal of integrating personal finance into the core curriculum for K-12 in all 50 states. Further, in 2006, the Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC) published The National Strategy for Financial Literacy, Taking Ownership of the Future, which advocated the integration of financial education into established curricula for elementary, secondary and post-secondary institutions.

This emphasis on integration is not coincidental. The Treasury has asserted that the integration of financial education into required reading and mathematics courses ensures that financial skills are taught and reinforced year after year, with fewer resources than would be required if financial education courses were to be offered separately. Likewise, the FLEC has maintained that integration of financial education permits schools and educators to meet their obligations to teach required courses while simultaneously exposing students to valuable financial literacy lessons. The FLEC noted that integration minimizes the potential for financial education to be subsequently eliminated due to budgetary constraints or changes in course offerings.

This is not to suggest integration at the exclusion of the more common approach of a separate high- school financial-literacy course. In fact, the President’s Advisory Council has called for research into the effectiveness of integrating personal-finance concepts into other coursework at the younger levels, followed by a capstone course as a high-school requirement.

Obviously, much work needs to be done at the state and local district levels to further support financial literacy in the classroom, a position supported by the National Association of State Boards of Education, which recommends states consider financial literacy as a basic feature of K-12 education.

Fortunately, as educators engage this challenge, they have well-regarded education programs available, such as the National Endowment for Financial Education High School Financial Planning Program, the NCEE Financial Fitness for Life Program and a variety of Junior Achievement programs. The key to advancing this agenda is to obtain support from the Obama administration for the continuance of the work of the President’s Advisory Council and to pursue consideration and implementation of the legislative changes espoused in the council’s 2008 annual report.

In anticipation of the change in administration in Washington, the council was appointed for a two-year term and remains available to serve the administration of President Obama through January of 2010. Let us collectively call on President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to continue the work of the council to address the financial literacy needs of America’s youth.

Paul J. Maloney is chairman of the Department of Finance in the Providence College School of Business.