ABOUT SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

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OUR MISSION

Our organizations mission is to engage students through real world learning to promote lifelong financial capabilities. We provide high quality, reality-based educational experiences that prepare young people to understand and apply basic marketplace concepts and skills, and expose them to business-related careers.

18,000

Students served 2024-25 school year

46

School districts served

38

Public and private charters schools served

5000

Volunteers served in 2024-25

Hello. For the last 31 years we’ve taught elementary school-aged children about economics.

Economics is a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

School of Economics was founded in 1994 through collaborative efforts of the Blue Springs School District, the City of Blue Springs and local businesses. There was an identified need for teaching elementary school-aged children about economics.

Our organization’s mission is to engage students through hands-on, curriculum-based learning programs to promote lifelong financial literacy. We help them to understand and apply basic marketplace concepts and skills and expose them to business-related careers.

In 31 years, we have served over 350,000 children in the greater Kansas City area. Our program is a curriculum-based field trip aligned with grade-level learning criteria. While at SOE, students learn experientially about:

  • Having jobs and managing their earned money
  • Working as a business team
  • Producing and selling merchandise (supply and demand)

School of Economics’ financial capability program is even more important today because many children are growing up without seeing their parents use cash. Kids often don’t make the connection between swiping a card and spending. SOE helps to provide that understanding. One student recently said, “I get it. I get why mom says no and why we can’t just put something on the card.”

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about what SOE is doing, please contact us at: [email protected]

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OUR STUDENT PROGRAMS

MINI-
TOWN

Mini-Town is a simplified version of the SOE Market designed for grades 2 and 3. This program is a hands-on field trip in which students are separated into two groups, consumers and producers of food and craft items. They demonstrate how people use money to buy and sell merchandise.

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SOE
MARKET

SOE Market is a hands-on field trip for grades 4 through 6. In this program, students operate in their own economy and experience the demands that businesses encounter. They put the skills and knowledge they have learned in the classroom into action in a real-world work environment.

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Latest Developments

A lot has happened in the past year! The School of Economics has:

  • Provided summer learning for over 1000 students in 2025
  • Currently piloting an SOE Teen Fieldtrip
  • Over 5,000 community and school volunteers supported SOE’s programs last year.

and so much more!

Download this fact sheet to read the full list of developments for 2024-25.