The interviewer, Joshua Paulk, who also is an aspiring actor and screenwriter, "was very bright, well prepared and had a list of questions he stuck to," said Johnson.

A three-minute edited version of Johnson's BizKid$ interview was to be put on Web sites across the nation last week giving CU staffers and their members a chance to view Johnson's taped segment.

"One of the items the young man picked up on was how important it is for teenagers to establish good credit while they are young," noted Johnson, who has already built a notable reputation in the Bush Administration as an ardent literacy advocate among young people.

Johnson, who in Iowa taught physical education classes for K-12 as well as coached both boys and girls athletics, said the BizKid$ linkup with Junior Achievement Worldwide is particularly appealing as well as "the program's high potential for success given the advance lesson plans that are handed out to teachers."

Though she did not teach science, she is familiar with the lesson plans given to Iowa teachers as part of the "Bill Nye the Science Guy" show and liked how that worked.

Jamie Hammond, the PBS coordinating producer for BizKid$ in Seattle, said crews have now completed five scripts with 13 episodes under contract with the CU coalition for 2007 in a deal put together by the Washington Credit Union League and paid for by a host of national and state foundations, major vendors and individual CU contributors. Also in the sponsoring group is the World Council of Credit Unions and joining the $2.6 million fundraising campaign last week was CUES with a $25,000 donation followed by a pledge by OfficeMax, the Naperville, Ill. office supplier, to earmark a portion of current and future sales to BizKid$.

All of this effort by CU groups to promote financial literacy in a creative medium heartens Johnson, who said she was thrilled when she was asked early last summer through staff contacts about "what I thought about doing an interview and telling me they had a place for me in the show."

She said OK without a second thought.

The NCUA Chairman has been quoted frequently on financial literacy topics and three years ago President Bush named her to the Financial Literacy and Education Commission headed by the U.S. Department of Treasury. She also was recently named chairman of the MyMoney.Gov Web site Subcommittee, which manages the government's online education function.

Johnson maintains that a financially educated consumer makes better decisions and has more control over their financial life than those who are not aware, adding, "accessing the American dream of financial self-sufficiency is not based on obtaining a loan or buying a new car, it is the very basics of education."

That means, she said, knowing the importance of saving, how to balance a checkbook, budgeting, or investing for retirement. "Financial education fosters financial stability for individuals and for entire communities and the more people know about credit and financial services the more likely they are to increase savings, become homeowners, and improve their financial health," she concluded.

As for production on BizKid$, so far PBS crews have filmed in five cities: New York, Seattle, San Antonio, Washington and Dallas. The debut in April is slated for a station in Rochester, N.Y. that will act as the host or "representing" PBS station under network protocol, said Hammond.

The April telecast will also coincide conveniently with National Financial Literacy Month, Washington League officials pointed out.

Producers and the Washington League are hopeful BizKid$ will equal the popularity of the Nye science show and mean as much to financial literacy as the Nye show has meant to science education. –[email protected]