Article: Class exercise aims to prevent harmful financial decisions.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Amy Collins stands at the front of the classroom and surveys the scene.

"How much do you spend each week on food, gasoline?" she asks the half-dozen teen-age girls in Carita Poe's parenting class at Shawnee Mission West High School in Overland Park, Kan.

There is silence.

Finally, one student raises her hand and volunteers an answer. Then another.

The ice is broken, and Collins spends the next 90 minutes giving these students an education on budgeting, credit cards and saving money.

It's a scene she repeats two or three times a day, at least 40 times a month. Today's students were young mothers.

As an education ...

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