America has fallen woefully behind in providing adequate financial education to students and families, especially when it comes to student loans. Recent progress by government agencies, financial institutions and schools themselves is making up for lost time, but many college graduates will still face significant student loan debt that could affect their lives for decades to come.

That message, although difficult to hear, was the focal point of an open hearing Sept. 24 by the Financial Literacy and Education Commission, a division of the U.S Department of Treasury, on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. The event drew participants from the public and private sectors to discuss the need for greater financial literacy, a situation that may have reached crisis proportions in the effect its having on individuals, families and the nation at large, according FLEC Vice Chair Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

"The neglect of financial education can undermine progress in any nation organized around a free market and founded on a regime of personal responsibility, like the United States," said Cordray in his opening remarks. "Yet Americans have neglected this important matter."