DISD's STAG at Pleasant Grove offers parents financial literacy classes

In the library at the School for Talented and Gifted at Pleasant Grove, the class was in session Wednesday morning. The students were parents of students at the school and the class was to teach them financial literacy.

"There's a deficit in education in finance," financial coach Beatriz Carrillo said. "Everything has a manual. Everything. Even how to insert batteries! But who gives us the manual for our paycheck?"

Once a week for 5-weeks, the classes teach how to save and invest money. The parents also learned about building credit, and why that's important to get the best interest rates.

"I think that's the biggest struggle of how we were raised when we were kids, and then we have these limited beliefs," Carrillo said. "How money is never enough, but we work so hard for our money, but it's never enough. Like, we're always living paycheck to paycheck."

About 75 percent of the student body at STAG at Pleasant Grove is considered low socio-economic status.

"You have to break the cycle Somewhere," STAG at Pleasant Grove Community Liaison Maribel Roca said. "So you have to get educated. Then that will trickle down to our students."

"What motivated me was that I spent more money than income that comes into the house," STAG parent Myriam Contreras said through a translator. "I would like to save money so that my children can go to college."

STAG at Pleasant Grove is a college prep school. Banners from different universities hang in the hallways for inspiration.

"We're trying to get our parents to not think of college or p-tech as a 'perhaps/maybe', but as a done deal," Roca said. "For our parents to be able to get their children there, they have to be able to be financially savvy."

On Wednesday, six parents--all mothers--got certificates of completion for their 5-week workshop.

"There's hope," Carrillo said. "There's hope that there's a different way to live life; not paycheck to paycheck."