(KRON) — Budgets, debit cards and savings accounts are not your average topics of conversation with 10-year-olds. But at Franklin Elementary School in Oakland, that’s exactly what the fourth and fifth graders are discussing.

“They’re learning about investing and saving and budgeting and avoiding bad debt,” said banker-turned-educator Valerie Chapman.

Chapman is a former banker who transitioned to education several years ago. She blended her two passions to create Financial Literacy for Kids.

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“Children of color are traditionally left behind in terms of economic parity, so what we’re trying to do is intervene and disrupt so that these kids in Oakland have an opportunity to gain financial knowledge,” Chapman said.

Lessons range from basic money management and identifying needs vs wants, all the way to learning about the stock market. Through the SIFMA National Stock Market Game, students are learning how to invest wisely.

It challenges them to invest $100,000 of virtual money. More than 600,000 students compete annually, and the fourth and fifth graders at Franklin are four-time consecutive champions of the game in their age group.

“I like that I have control of some money and I can choose what to do with the money even if it is fake,” said fifth-grader Clare Li-Bland.

“They’re identifying companies in their own world Walgreens, Walmart and Amazon and making the linkage between investing and thinking about companies they engage with every day,” Tim Ranzetta said.

Ranzetta is the co-founder of Nexgen Personal Finance. His organization has helped provide books and other resources to the program at Franklin Elementary School. He wants every student in California to receive this same knowledge

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“CA is used to being a leader in things, unfortunately when it comes to financial education they’re at the bottom of the pack,” Ranzetta said.

His group “Californians for Financial Education” is working on a ballot initiative to guarantee every student gets a personal finance course before graduating high school.

“It’s really remarkable how much students want this material,” Ranzetta said.

It’s not just the students benefiting either.

“I’ve had parents come up after school asking can we join the class?” Chapman said.

Chapman believes equipping the kids with money management skills early will set them on the path to financial success in the future. It will help them to set both long-term goals like saving for college and short-term goals like buying a video game or a phone.

“The first thing I really want to worry about is buying my own phone because if I get in trouble my parents can’t take it away because I bought it and pay the bill on the phone!” said fifth-grader Messiah Dunbar.

Chapman is technically volunteering her time to teach this course to the kids. She says they’re in need of more books and resources and is asking anyone in the community who wants to help with funding the program to reach out to Oakland Unified School District (OUSD).

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