Posted on 05/02/2022 8:42:46 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
There’s been a move over the past few years to help young Americans learn how to manage their money better. And it’s long overdue. It can be easy to wonder what sort of problems financial literacy courses could have prevented for the generations before those who are in school now.
In recent months, Florida, Nebraska, Ohio, and Rhode Island have signed laws creating a requirement that high school students take financial courses in order to graduate. In all, a dozen states have similar laws on the books. Georgia joined the ranks of those states this week.
Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill into law on Thursday that will include personal finance classes in the state’s high school curriculum. Beginning with the 2024-2025 school year, 11th- and 12th-grade students will be required to take a course in financial literacy to graduate.
The new law “will ensure that [students] learn financial literacy in our schools, like the importance of good credit and how to budget properly so that they can be better prepared for the world beyond the classroom,” Kemp said, as reported by CNBC.
Next Gen Personal Finance, an organization that is advocating for raising financial literacy among students, stated in its 2022 annual report that, because of the states that have passed legislation, 22.7% of high schoolers in this year’s senior class will have graduated with personal finance education. When Georgia’s law goes into effect, along with those of other states whose laws haven’t gone into effect this school year, that percentage will go up.
Right now, roughly half of high school students nationwide have options for financial classes as an elective, but we all know that it doesn’t mean that students will take those classes.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
When states don’t require personal finance classes, many school systems don’t think they have the resources to effectively educate their students on money management.
Might be better to start with simple literacy, then work from there
Financial literacy would go a long way towards avoiding a lot of the problems that affect young people.
Dont know where they will find the time for this, between all the gender studies and CRT...
Anyone who doesn’t understand compound interest should not be allowed to have a credit card or take out a loan, anymore than a blind person should be allowed to fly a plane or drive.
As it should be in all states. Here in NH, a local high school has the students model their lives as if they are working full time at Chipolte (something they can relate to). They have to get a place to live, transportation, pay utilities, etc. It is a rather eye-opening experience.
At the start of senior year in high school there should be a course on what to do after high school. Show the students the actual ROI on college for their intended major. Have them think of it as an investment. Model the next 10 years based on their options - college, work, military.... Stop thinking of college as the default.
My thought as well....it won’t be long I’m sure
Agreed. And perhaps more importantly, maybe it's unwise to expect sound financial teachings to come from broke public schools. It'd be like demanding Chris Christie or Stacey Abrams teach weight loss courses.
It’s a lot easier than asking those idiot teachers to teach math.
“Anyone who doesn’t understand compound interest should not be allowed to have a credit card or take out a loan...”
My friend......if that happened it would most assuredly crash the banking industry. Lol!
Every course whold include this video:
Me Is Mine, You Is Yours
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxnBSb4OKeU
FINALLY!! ALL of them should!!
I think this is a good idea, in theory.
I’m guilty of not being a good steward of our finances. A few years ago it struck me like a lightning bolt. Dug out from under quite a bit of consumer debt, paid off our mortgage and currently have a small balance on a car loan. No credit cards, no personal loans, nothing.
We have a written budget and currently put about 30% of our income in 401s/Roth IRAs. Plus we have an emergency fund. But it took a lightning bolt from the clouds to bring this about.
I think the best thing we can do for ourselves is to be debt free, put something away for retirement and live below our means. Not sure the public school environment is a good place for that.
I remember in High School learning how to balance a checkbook, how to make a budget and pay bills, and we even filled out a 1040EZ based on hypothetical income and withholding numbers.
How about teaching math again and not this nonsensical ‘common core’ BS that makes math incomprehensible to most kids?
Great idea, I just hope this doesn’t get politicized. I would hire Dave Ramsey to write the curriculum.
In a restaurant my wife and go to on a regular basis, we got into a discussion with the bartender/waitress and a customer who was a school teacher about compound interest and taking on debts like car loans, home mortgages, etc...
Neither one of them had any clue how interest was calculated on these types of loans and how much extra person pays if they pay the loan to completion...
Both were skeptical at first until I had them google a mortgage calculator and calculate the amounts, both were shocked, not sure it changed their minds but at least it was a start.
I never understood why they don’t teach compound interest in math.
It’s called basic math!
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