The Iowa Insurance Division Sponsors Live Performances Teaching Financial Literacy in Middle Schools

Minneapolis, MN (April 11, 2013) – Beginning April 15, thousands of middle school students throughout the state of Iowa will be treated to performances of Mad About Money II: Pay Yourself First! This unique and entertaining program – featuring live, educational theatre performances by professional actors – also includes print and Internet curriculum designed to get students to consider good habits around earning, saving and spending money.  Sponsored by the Iowa Insurance Division (IID), the program will play in 50 middle schools throughout the state.

Mad About Money, produced by The National Theatre for Children (NTC), features two professional actors who play a variety of characters in a 40-minute program for the entire school.  Students learn important lessons about their money and buying habits through four comical and informative sketches, including:

• Wages minus deductions equals take home pay
• Saving and investing always have some level of risk involved
• Don’t let advertisers make your decisions
• Financial choices affect your future

While the performance and educational content is completely scripted, the shows are built to incorporate certain moments of improvisation.  At the beginning of each scene, actors solicit information from the audience that is then humorously integrated into the show.  “The improvisational part of the show is really fun,” says Jolene Schurman of the Iowa Insurance Division. “The actors are able to take those suggestions from the audience and blend them into the action of the show in some really amazing ways.  The comedy of the show actually changes every time you see it!”

IID is a committed advocate for financial literacy in the state of Iowa, sponsoring a Mad About Money program into Iowa schools for the last six years.  Following the performances, students return to their classrooms to complete print activities and digital classroom games that further reinforce the financial literacy concepts from the show.  “Live theater is a really exciting and unique teaching platform,” Ms Schurman confirms.  “Especially when you combine it with classroom activities and homework assignments.  And the sooner students begin learning about managing their money, the better off they are in the long run.”

The Mad About Money program and format was the focus of a study conducted by financial literacy researcher Dr. Lewis Mandell.  His study provided empirical evidence that NTC-style productions—live educational theatre combined with print and classroom activities – positively influence student attitudes on personal finance.  For a copy of Dr. Mandell’s study, please contact NTC.

About the Iowa Insurance Division (IID)

The Iowa Insurance Division’s mission is to protect consumers through consumer education and by effectively and efficiently providing a fair, flexible and positive regulatory environment.  The IID supervises all insurance business transacted in the state. The insurance commissioner grants permission to companies wishing to sell insurance in Iowa and has general control over all aspects of their business, from the forms they use to the rates they charge. The commissioner also serves as the administrator of the securities act which involves the licensing of brokerage firms and their agents, examining new securities offerings and investigating investment fraud cases:  www.iid.state.ia.us

About The National Theatre for Children (NTC)

In 1978, NTC dedicated itself to delivering entertaining and highly educational programs to positively motivate families, students and educators.  We educate young people – and their families – on important and timely curricular subjects including: wise energy use, STEM, financial literacy, health and nutrition and environmental literacy, among others.  Originally focused on delivering its programs via live theatre, NTC has added printed curriculum and multiplatform media and developed the art of teaching through educational theatre into a science of its own.  NTC has grown to become the largest in-school touring educational theatre company in the world: www.nationaltheatre.com

DES MOINES, IA (04/11/2013)(readMedia)-- State Treasurer Michael L. Fitzgerald is encouraging Iowans to make the most of their tax refunds this year by investing in College Savings Iowa. "Much like the April 15 deadline for taxes, the time to save for college is over before you know it," said Fitzgerald. "Put your refund to good use and start saving for a loved one's future educational needs today. By starting early, saving a little at a time and making smart investment choices, families can make their savings work for them."

College Savings Iowa is designed to provide families a tax-advantaged way to save money for their children's higher education. It only takes $25 to open an account, and anyone – parents, grandparents, friends and relatives – can invest in College Savings Iowa on behalf of a child. Participants who are Iowa taxpayers can deduct contributions up to $3,045 per beneficiary from their 2013 adjusted gross income, and there are no income or residency restrictions.* Earnings grow tax free and investors can withdraw their investment federally and Iowa state tax-free to pay for qualified higher education expenses including tuition, books, supplies and certain room and board costs at any eligible college, university, community college or accredited technical training school in the United States or abroad.**

Saving for a child's education is always a smart investment, and College Savings Iowa is there to help. To learn more about College Savings Iowa or to open an account, please visit www.collegesavingsiowa.com or call 1-888-672-9116.

*Adjusted annually for inflation. If withdrawals are not qualified, the deductions must be added back to Iowa taxable income.

**Earnings on non-qualified withdrawals may be subject to federal income tax and a 10% federal penalty tax, as well as state income taxes. The availability of tax or other benefits may be contingent on meeting other requirements.

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Investment returns are not guaranteed and you could lose money by investing in the plan. Participants assume all investment risks as well as responsibility for any federal and state tax consequences. If you are not an Iowa taxpayer, consider before investing whether your or the designated beneficiary's home state offers any state tax or other benefits that are only available for investments in such state's qualified tuition program.

For more information about the College Savings Iowa 529 Plan, call 888-672-9116 or visit www.collegesavingsiowa.com to obtain a Program Description. Investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and other important information are included in the Program Description; read and consider it carefully before investing.

College Savings Iowa is an Iowa trust sponsored by the Iowa State Treasurer's Office. The Treasurer of the State of Iowa sponsors and is responsible for overseeing the administration of the College Savings Iowa 529 Plan. The Vanguard Group, Inc., serves as Investment Manager and Vanguard Marketing Corporation, an affiliate of The Vanguard Group, Inc., assists the Treasurer with marketing and distributing the Plan. Upromise Investment Advisors, LLC, provides records administration services. The Plan's portfolios, although they invest in Vanguard mutual funds, are not mutual funds.

Can guns in the classroom prevent the next school shooting tragedy? The National Rifle Association has proposed arming teachers as a deterrent to the next Adam Lanza or T.J. Lane. While school districts will need to find the security solutions that they and their communities are comfortable with, I’d like to see our teachers, principals and staff armed with something potentially more powerful — the tools and information to identify students who are headed for a mental health crisis.

Every time a troubled young person commits a horrific act of violence, we try to understand what went wrong. The media is still looking into Adam Lanza’s upbringing, mental health status, and school records for clues to the Newtown, Conn., tragedy. We’ve done the same for James Holmes, Jared Lee Laughner, TJ Lane. In every case, we find that there were warning signs, usually years in advance. One thing we know: a mentally healthy, socially secure and well-balanced teen doesn’t just wake up one morning and decide to kill a dozen people. Teachers, neighbors, peers and relatives always are able to look backwards and identify things that just “weren’t quite right.”

Mental health experts estimate that one in 10 teens has a mental health issue, and as many as 80 percent of them may be undiagnosed. Mental health problems like schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder often manifest between the ages of 14 and 24. It is no accident that many of the most publicized mass shootings have been carried out by young people (often men) in their teens or twenties.

What role can schools play in ensuring that teens who need mental health services are identified, referred and receive services? We may want to exempt schools from this responsibility and insist that they focus only on academics. But the reality is, they cannot focus on academics unless they have first established a safe environment for learning. Students who are in a mental health crisis are a disruption to the learning process in the best case, and a danger to themselves, their peers and school staff in the worst case.

We can—and should—talk about appropriate security precautions. But this addresses only one piece of the problem. If we could make our schools perfectly secure, a troubled student intent on homicide would then take his weapon to the theater, the mall or the public park. We need to figure out how to prevent these kinds of attacks from happening at all, without turning ourselves into a police state.

The way to do this is to focus on early identification of students who are showing signs of risk, and establishing a strong referral and monitoring program to make sure that students in need of mental health services actually receive and benefit from them. It’s not enough to simply log an incident report and walk away. We need to ask what kind of services does the student need? The family? And make sure they have access to appropriate resources. And then we need to follow up, to make sure that the connection was made and interventions are working. If they’re not, we need to try something else.

Why should schools be involved in the identification and referral process? Because that’s where the students are. Our high schools and colleges are the front lines, and the last place where we will have young people all gathered together. We cannot count on every family being able to recognize potential problems and self-refer. But we can train our teachers, school counselors and administrators to do a better job of recognizing emerging issues, and give them the tools and resources they need for appropriate identification, referral and management of school- and community-based resources.

Keeping our children and communities safe requires more than security precautions. We have a responsibility to potential future victims to do everything we can to prevent future tragedies like Sandy Hook. We also have a responsibility to potential future perpetrators to find them before their demons carry them too far away from us to save.

We may not be able to rescue every future Adam Lanza from the demons within. But recognizing and treating signs of dangerous mental illness at the onset will do more to keep our communities safe than all the guns, locks and metal detectors our money can buy.

About Dr. Mariam Azin: Dr. Mariam Azin holds a doctorate in applied social psychology and has more than 20 years of experience in educational research and evaluation. She has been the principal investigator on numerous large-scale evaluation efforts related to at-risk learners; curriculum and instruction; educational technology; and community programs spanning mental health, substance use and criminal justice. She served as joint principal investigator on three federal Safe Schools/Healthy Students evaluations. In 2012 she founded Mazin Education (www.mazineducation.com), an educational company focused on software solutions that help schools to better assess, identify and serve at-risk students.

A scholarship fundraiser for the Jerry Wilkerson Scholarship Fund at Scott Community College will be held on May 18, 2013 at RME RedStone Room from 5pm-11pm.

Featuring musicians like Ellis Kell and members of Funktastic 5 and other local musicians from the area.  Along with other entertainment there will be a silent auction and 50/50 drawings.