Throughout August and September, high school teachers and students across the United States will return to school to attend classes. Unfortunately, some students nationwide will not be required to take the most important class that will follow them throughout high school and their lives as adults. Personal Finance is a course that teaches students about various topics they will use in the present and the future. Personal Finance covers different issues such as alternatives to college, banking, behavioral psychology, budgeting, careers, college consumer skills, credit, cryptocurrency, insurance, investing, taxes, and more. Personal Finance allows students to gain the abilities and skills necessary to be successful with money.

When I talk to other adults and tell them that I teach Personal Finance, they all tell me they wish they would have had the chance to take the class in school. Most adults feel like they would have been able to avoid some of the financial mistakes they have made, and I have the same sentiments on the subject matter. According to the 2024 Survey of the States from the Council for Economic Education, 88% of adults in the United States agreed their state should require a mandatory Personal Finance course to graduate. Eight in ten adults wish they would have been required to take at least one semester of Personal Finance before they graduated high school.

The good news is that the requirement to have Personal Finance is trending in the right direction. According to the National Endowment for Financial Education, 26 states require a mandatory standalone Personal Finance course to graduate high school. This means that state lawmakers and legislation are headed in the right direction, but it is still only 52% of the country, which means there is a lot of work to be done trying to get other states to create required standalone Personal Finance courses. You can track bills introduced in each state and see their progress using Next Gen Personal Finance’s bill tracker. Next Gen Personal Finance is a non-profit organization that advocates for financial literacy and helps transform the Personal Finance classroom through the curriculum and development of educators nationwide and beyond. Next Gen Personal Finance’s Mission 2030 is an effort to guarantee a Personal Finance course for at least a semester for all students in all states by the year 2030. The organization will even give tools to advocates seeking to change their school, district, or state through their advocacy toolkit.      

As a veteran Personal Finance teacher, I tell all my students that my class is the most important class they will ever take. I truly believe that statement because students can transform their lives and the lives of future generations and even change their family trees through the information presented and the knowledge gained. I never had the opportunity or access to a Personal Finance course throughout my journey in education. I made many mistakes in high school, college, and as a young adult that could have been avoided if I had had the proper knowledge in middle school and high school. I learned various lessons about finance through the mistakes I made, but it does not have to be that way for everyone. Students in the education system today do not have to take a negative path when learning about finance. They can get all of the information they need in a Personal Finance class, absorb it, and put it into practice to become individuals who are successful with money. All students in the United States deserve access and a guarantee to become financially literate through a Personal Finance course.

Links to multimedia:

2024 Survey of the States https://www.councilforeconed.org/policy-advocacy/survey-of-the-states/

National Endowment for Financial Education https://www.nefe.org/news/2024/08/respect-legislative-intent-with-youth-financial-education-requirements.aspx

Next Gen Personal Finance Advocacy Toolkit https://www.ngpf.org/advocacy-toolkit/

Next Gen Personal Finance Bill Tracker https://www.ngpf.org/bill-tracker/

The intended audience for this article is K-12 classroom teachers, administrators, advocates of Financial Literacy, and state lawmakers in charge of education policy.

Biography

Dr. Wally T. Luckeydoo is an award-winning educator located in Nashville, TN. He is the recipient of the 2024 Educator of the Year award for Tennessee Jump$tart. He advocates for Educational Technology and Financial Literacy. He is a veteran High School Personal Finance Teacher who regularly facilitates professional development and is passionate about helping students become the best versions of themselves.

Connect with Wally: @drluckeydoo