Fort Bend ISD middle school teacher tackles credit card debt, investing and savings in lesson plans

MISSOURI CITY, Texas (KTRK) -- At Lake Olympia Middle school in the Fort Bend Independent School District, a middle school teacher is making sure his students have a head start on their finances.

Shaughn Thomas, 32, has made it his goal to make sure his students are financially literate, especially when it comes to college.

"We teach GPA at an early age because we don't want you to take out loans," said Thomas. "I was the first in my family to go to college, so I wasn't privy to the knowledge of, if you get good grades in high school you can go to school for free."

Thomas has an after-school program called "Invest In Yourself," where his middle schoolers learn about credit card debt, retirement savings and how to set up their own savings accounts for college. Students even get stipends for those bank accounts.

"They deposit the money, but half of the money you get to keep, the other half you have to invest," said Thomas. "All of my students have shares and own stock in Fortune 500 companies."

Thomas believes all his students are destined for greatness.

"(I tell them) if you do something, be the best. If money is your motivation, no matter what you do, if you're great at it, the money will come," said Thomas.

Thomas has taken his students to Wall Street in New York. They have also taught a stock market workshop class to hundreds of people in the community.

Thomas was Fort Bend I.S.D.'s Teacher of The Year in 2017.