K-12 financial education has grown stronger

Biennial research reveals ‘banner two years’ as wave of legislation drives personal finance and economics courses in high schools.

A wave of legislative changes has driven an increase in financial literacy education across US high schools over the past two years, according to new research from the Council for Economic Education.

In its 2024 Survey of the States report, CEE noted several states have introduced and passed legislation to make personal finance and economics courses a graduation requirement for K-12 students.

Since 2022, 12 new states have required students to take a stand-alone personal finance course in order to graduate from high school – including nine in 2023 alone – bringing the total to 35 overall, the CEE report said.

In the past two years, three states have also unveiled new legislation requiring students to take an economics course before they can graduate from high school, CEE said. Because of those advances, more than 10 million more K–12 students have gained access to financial education.

Among the states at the forefront of pushing high school financial literacy, the report highlighted North Carolina and Virginia’s comprehensive approach of requiring both economics and personal finance courses.

Citing a 2022 poll by the National Endowment for Financial Education, CEE said 88 percent of US adults think a personal finance course should be required for high school graduation in their state, with another eight in 10 saying they wish they’d been required to take at least one semester of personal finance.

“It’s been a banner two years for young people’s financial knowledge and futures,” said Nan J. Morrison, CEE president and CEO. “Putting life-essential financial knowledge into the hands of more and more kids is cause for celebration.”

Despite these advances, there are still challenges. Because some state education departments are not fully sticking to legislative intentions, the CEE said many students are still left without the comprehensive financial education they’re supposed to get.

In one example of practice falling behind policy intent, the report pointed to Michigan, which passed a law in 2022 requiring a stand-alone personal finance course for graduation. But instead of making sure schools offered a stand-alone course, the state’s education department focused on meeting specific benchmarks of financial literacy for students.

“We urge all stakeholders to join us in working with state agencies to implement these laws in a way that ensures that all students receive the courses as intended,” CEE said.