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Charlotte educator brings personal finance to life at Berry Academy
Back in 2019, state lawmakers passed a bill requiring North Carolina’s high school students to pass a course in economics and personal finance so they could better navigate the world.
It made so much sense. How can one get through life without understanding the basics of credit cards, interest rates, renting versus buying, investing and many other subjects of everyday life?
Having a state mandate and running an effective program are two different things, however.
Five years later, Charlotte’s Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology is showing leadership in making the requirement come to life for its students. During a recent visit to the public high school three miles west of uptown Charlotte, I learned how an inspired social studies teacher, Rex Mangiaracina, has helped produce an extremely effective program.
Berry seniors Nuha Jones and Devin Anderson told me that “Mr. M’s” one-semester Economics and Personal Finance class was their favorite high school course because they had learned so much valuable, real-world information.
Anderson
“I see everybody in that class making better financial decisions,” says Anderson, who plans to enroll at East Carolina University. “How to budget, how to stay away from scams and frauds … It’s a class that guides you in life.”
During my visit, the 29 students were playing a game that involved defining the meaning of a few dozen topics including “aspirational buying,” “hasty generalizations,” “truthiness,” and “feedback loops.”
Mangiaracina is a 20-year teacher who returned to the classroom in August 2020 after working for six years at UNC Charlotte’s education school. He came back because he felt so strongly about the importance of the newly mandated course, and he missed the student contact.
“Students and the families generally enjoy the program because of the content,” he says. “Most parents say they wish they had had the course during their high school years, and I feel the same way.”
Most Berry students start “from the ground floor” in understanding both economic and personal finance, the teacher says. Most enter extremely nervous about the class given their limited understanding. About 91% of the school’s 1,500 students are Black or Hispanic, with 4% Asian. Forty-six percent qualify for free or reduced lunch.
No matter one’s racial or economic background, though, the course is needed for all N.C. high school students, he adds. He’d preferred the topic be taught at all grade levels.
By the end of the semester, “I’d feel confident about putting the students up against the majority of American adults in their understanding,” he adds. His goal is to create their most important class, along with “being the most fun, too.”
About 40% of the course is about economics, with 60% on personal finance. He has taught dozens of different history and social studies classes in his career, but this one is different. “This is without question the most important class I’ve taught. I’d argue it is one of the most important classes the kids will take in high school,” he says.
Asked the biggest misconception students have about money, Mangiaracina says it’s understanding the difference between being rich and wealthy and how money can work for those who understand financial systems. “The class helps students learn how to navigate those systems,” he says.
Led by Mangiaracina, Berry has taken part in a certification program run by New York-based nonprofit Working in Support of Education, or W!SE. The program, which operates in 35 states, prepares students for college and career readiness while fostering financial confidence and habits. About 86% of the Berry students passed the W!SE exam in May, after 93% passed in January.
“It gives the kids a credential they can take forward,” he says. “We were awarded the Blue Ribbon School award, the only school in North Carolina to get that [from W!SE]. I want to encourage more and more leaders at districts around the state to pursue funding for that. I think it’s very important.”
Mangiaracina negotiated a deal with W!SE and gained some grant money from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to run Berry’s program for a year. He’s seeking ongoing funding.
To help sustain the program at Berry, reach out to rexa.mangiaracina@cms.k12.nc.us.
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