FVCC hosts economics session for educators
Flathead Valley Community College recently hosted a three-day workshop to help elementary and high school educators teach economics.
Gregg Davis, chairman of the social sciences division at the college, said the workshop was created by the Montana Council on Economics Education.
"We had teachers come from Hamilton, Missoula, Northwest and Southwest Montana," Davis said.
He said the effort ties in with the council's mission to quash economics illiteracy while helping teachers meet "No Child Left Behind" mandates related to economics.
According to Davis, national testing on economics has not yet begun.
"But it's coming," he said. "Most teachers don't have training in economics."
Davis said national goals give educators a tall order.
He said he would be happy to achieve that level of economic literacy in a college class.
Also according to national surveys, most people have almost no understanding of basic economics.
"Everyone knows who Alan Greenspan is but they don't know how monetary policy affects their lives," Davis said.
He said a Wall Street Journal article found even people involved in the bond market often don't understand the bond market.
This economic illiteracy spawned the Montana Economic Education Council mission to ensure that every young person in Montana:
-Understands the essential economics of a free-market system.
-Is able to use economic ways of thinking and problem solving.
-Has a solid grasp of the workings of a state, national and global economy.
The three-day "Excellence in Education Teachers Workshop" sponsored by the council and numerous grants targets that mission.
"It's an attempt to help teachers teach this stuff," Davis said.
The council made the educators an offer that was difficult to refuse. Teachers received an all-expense-paid trip while their districts received reimbursement for hiring substitute teachers.
Instructors included Davis, Norm Milliken (executive director of the council) and two economics professors from Montana State University in Bozeman.
They presented economic issues that impact Montana.
Topics ranged from the economic impact of the minimum wage to the cigarette tax and health care. They also looked at global interdependence and prices as a rationing mechanism.
Davis used gas prices as an example of a rationing mechanism. He pointed to calls to eliminate government gas taxes as an example of misguided economic thinking.
"What we want to do is reduce demand and encourage supply," he said.
A member of the council's board of directors, Davis also serves as director of the Center for Business Information and Research.
Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.