For more than 50 years, the Council for Economic Education has been calling attention to the need to educate our young people effectively in the skills of economics and personal finance and showing how that need can best be met. This new program, developed by the Council for Economic Education and sponsored by the Bank of America Foundation, provide an excellent and dramatic step in the direction of improving economic and financial literacy.

The Council for Economic Education envisions a world in which people are empowered through economic and financial literacy to make informed and responsible choices throughout their lives as consumers, savers, investors, workers, citizens, and participants in our global economy.

The mission of the Council for Economic Education is two-fold: To advocate for better and greater school-based economic and personal finance education at the K-12 level; and to educate young people in the United States and around the world, primarily through well-prepared teachers, so they may become empowered with economic and financial literacy.

The Council for Economic Education offers comprehensive, best-in-class K-12 economic and personal finance education programs, including the basics of entrepreneurship, consisting of teaching resources across the curriculum, professional development for teachers, and nationally-normed assessment instruments. Each year, the Councils programs reach more than 150,000 K-12 teachers and over 15 million students in the United States and in more than 30 other countries. These programs are delivered through a diversified system: directly from the Council, through a network of affiliated state Councils and university-based Centers for Economic Education, and through other partner organizations.

The Bank of America Foundation directs charitable giving on behalf of Bank of America. The Bank of America Foundation contributes financial assistance to nonprofit institutions that enhance the quality of life and promote public interest where the company conducts its business.

One of the world's leading financial services companies, Bank of America is committed to making financial services work for customers like it never has before. Through innovative technologies and the ingenuity of its people, Bank of America provides individuals, small businesses and commercial, corporate and institutional clients across the United States and around the world new and better ways to manage their financial lives. The company enables customers to do their banking and investing whenever, wherever and however they choose through the nation's largest financial services network, including approximately 4,400 domestic offices and 13,000 ATMs, as well as 38 international offices serving clients in 190 countries, and an Internet Web site that provides online access for more than 3 million customers, more than any other bank.