Bethel Park students meet auditor general, learn financial literacy at JA BizTown

Say you encounter an offer for a credit card that boasts a 0% introductory annual percentage rate for the first 12 months after opening an account.

Oh, and the rate increases to between 18% and 29%, based on your creditworthiness, at the end of that year.

Do you take the deal, buy a bunch of stuff and start making minimum payments, figuring that everything will work out in the long run?

A Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania program provides elementary-age students with a head start on coming up with an informed answer. And the state’s auditor general wants to institute similar educational opportunities —well, everywhere.

“It’s my opinion that financial literacy needs to be taught in every single school, from kindergarten through 12th grade, in Pennsylvania,” Timothy DeFoor said. “Twenty-one other states do it. Why can’t we do it? It’s not a heavy lift.”

The auditor general paid an April visit to Junior Achievement’s leading contribution to the cause: JA BizTown, a simulated community inside the Western Pennsylvania headquarters in South Fayette. Students in fourth through sixth grade gain practical experience by performing various commerce-related functions in miniature versions of sponsoring businesses.

BizTown offers youngsters a look at how local government functions, too. Fourth-graders from Bethel Park’s Benjamin Franklin Elementary School participated in the program when DeFoor was present, and he took the opportunity to swear in class member Violet Henderson as the town’s mayor for the day.

Patrice Matamoros, Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania president, introduced the auditor general to the Bethel Park students, sharing a bit of unexpected information:

“When he was your age, he did not like math.”

As the subsequent laughter abated, DeFoor confessed.

“I was bad at it, but I overcame it. So what that means: Right now, if you’re bad at something, you can overcome it, and you can learn to be really good at it,” he said. “You always have the opportunity to improve yourself.”

He later met with several recipients of Junior Achievement’s 18 Under Eighteen awards, students recognized for their talents and achievements, to discuss the auditor general’s role in ensuring that all state money is spent legally and properly.

“It’s my responsibility to work with our government leaders regardless of what political party you are,” DeFoor said. “That’s how it’s supposed to be done. I can’t do something based on one political party’s beliefs. I have to do something based on Pennsylvania Fiscal Code and the law.”

Elected as a Republican in 2020, DeFoor previously served as Dauphin County controller. He regularly examines audit reports and finds that about half contain basic accounting errors, “particularly dealing with pensions.”

“Even some of the larger city pension plans, accounting errors over and over and over again. It’s staggering, and it’s painful,” he said. “If we can get our youth to understand financial literacy, like we’re trying to promote, I believe that those errors that we’re seeing now are going to go away.”

He complimented Junior Achievement’s efforts toward reaching such a goal.

“Everything that we’re doing with regard to financial literacy, this BizTown puts a bow on it,” DeFoor said. “This is everything that we are trying to do, everything that we are trying to teach.”

For more information, visit westernpa.ja.org.