I don't think there's a massive conspiracy to systematically keep people financially naive. I think there's a legitimate debate to be had over whether formal schooling is the best place to put this sort of education.
There are plenty of classes that teach non-academic subjects, finance should be one of them, since we life in an money centered society.
I know we do. We shouldn't. "Home economics" is the biggest waste of time I had to endure in my entire education.
Schools, by design, are not interested in encouraging critical thinking or creating independent and free individuals. Rather, the focus is on organising children and creating reliable, predictable, obedient citizens. As award-winning former teacher John Gatto puts it, “school was looked upon from the first part of the 20th Century as a branch of industry and a tool of governance.”
The financial elite and their philanthropic organisations together with lobby groups and governments have been able to mold society by funding and pushing compulsory state schooling for the masses.
Also, schools have become bastions of various ideologues (feminists, multiculturalists, moral relativists etc.), most of whom are not particularly clear thinkers. These people spend most of their time divided between pushing their own brand of BS and fighting for tenure with little concern for true educational reform.