FTC Partnership with Atlanta Schools To Boost Students' Consumer Skills

The Federal Trade Commission’s Atlanta Regional Office today announced that it has formed a partnership with the Atlanta Public Schools System that will incorporate teacher training programs, parents’ nights, career days, high school student internships and other programs to boost the consumer skills of students at all levels in the system. At a press conference in the school superintendent’s building this afternoon, FTC Atlanta Regional Director Anthony E. DiResta said he hopes the partnership will become a model for similar partnerships across the country.

“FTC staff members have a great deal to share about what they’ve learned while enforcing the nation’s consumer protection laws,” said Jodie Bernstein, Director of the FTC’s Bueau of Consumer Protection, said today. “We’ll be partnering our staffers directly with students, school administrators, teachers and even parents and other family members to help young consumers in Atlanta become more savvy about the marketplace. This partnership is particularly close to my heart because one of the audiences we can reach is children in inner-city schools.”

The first stage of the partnership will be a seminar for principals and assistant principals of the system’s 95 schools, to be held on Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to noon at Washington High School, 45 White House Drive, N.W., in Atlanta. The meeting is open to the press. A discussion of the partnership and the next four stages is attached.

Copies of dozens of consumer education brochures developed by the FTC are available from the FTC’s Public Reference Branch, Room 130, 6th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580; 202-326-2222; TTY for the hearing impaired 1-866-653-4261; as well as on the Internet at the FTC’s World Wide Web site at: http://www.ftc.gov