Urged Hawaii Dept. of Education to add tax instruction to its embedded financial literacy requirement

Sens. Donna Kim, Stanley Chang, Brandon Elefante, Troy Hashimoto, Lorraine Inouye, Dru Kanuha, Tim Richards

Requests State Board and Dept. of Education to require a standalone Personal Finance course.

Standalone financial literacy graduation requirement for 11th and 12th graders starting with the graduating class of 2032

Sens. Daniel Sparks, Nicole Boyd, Kevin Blackwell, David Blount, Albert Butler, Michael McLendon, Chad Mcmahan, Rita Potts Parks, Sarita Simmons, Jeff Tate, Lane Taylor, Bart Williams

State already requires a Personal Finance course, but this bill proposes personal finance as a graduation requirement and establishes a financial literacy trust fund

Omnibus education / school choice bill. State already requires a Personal Finance course, but this bill proposes a financial literacy requirement.

Requires the department of elementary and secondary education to develop a curriculum on personal finance to be used by school districts

HCS Reported Do Pass on March 23, 2026

Asms. Lisa Swain, Sterley Stanley, Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, Shama Haider, Ellen Park  

Closes loopholes in existing requirement. Enacts a standalone personal finance course requirement. Refiled from prior session.

Passed Senate Education Committee on March 2, 2026; referred to Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee on March 4, 2026

Adds content standards on student loans, cryptocurrency to financial literacy requirement

Sens. Leroy Comrie, Joseph Addabbo, Jeremy Cooney, Nathalia Fernandez, Patrick Gallivan, Robert Jackson, Andrew Lanza, Rachel May, Zellnor Myrie, Luis Sepulveda, Alexis Weik; Asms. Jonathan Jacobson, Alfred Taylor, Catalina Cruz, Stefani Zinerman, Steven Raga, Angelo Santabarbara, Dana Levenberg, Brian Cunningham, Clyde Vanel, Carrie Woerner, Harvey Epstein, Pamela Hunter, Eddie Gibbs, Karines Reyes, Demond Meeks, Robert Carroll, Philip Ramos, Maryjane Shimsky, Charles Lavine, Jeffrey Dinowitz, and Gabriella Romero       

Embedded business ownership and entrepreneurship curriculum requirement, including some financial literacy content

Sens. Leroy Comrie and Peter Harckham; Asms. Sam Berger, Maryjane Shimsky, Donna Lupardo, Brian Maher, Anil Beephan, and Anna Kelles

Would allow AP Business (which has just 25 hours of financial literacy instruction) to fulfill a full one-semester (60hr) financial literacy course requirement

Sent to Governor on March 14, 2026 for Action. Governor's Action Deadline is 11:59 pm on April 13

Sens. Adrian Cortes, Javier Valdez, Chris Gildon, Robert Hasegawa, T'wina Nobles, Tina Orwall, Marcus Riccelli, Vandana Slatter, Yasmin Trudeau, Claire Wilson     

Reps. Skyler Rude, Monica Stonier, Debra Lekanoff, Beth Doglio, Travis Couture, April Connors, Liz Berry, Dan Bronoske, Mari Leavitt, Cindy Ryu, Lauren Davis, Andrew Barkis, Ed Orcutt, Cyndy Jacobsen, Roger Goodman, Jim Walsh, Mike Steele, Dave Paul, Steve Tharinger, Mark Klicker, Greg Nance, Carolyn Eslick, Jamila Taylor, Michelle Valdez, Lisa Parshley, Michael Keaton, John Ley, Joe Timmons, Gerry Pollet, Jake Fey, Tarra Simmons, Natasha Hill

Sens. Javier Valdez, Adrian Cortes, Paul Harris, Deborah Krishnadasan, Marko Liias, T'wina Nobles, Tina Orwall, Marcus Riccelli, Rebecca Saldana, Sharon Shewmake, Yasmin Trudeau, Claire Wilson

Sens. Mary Felzkowski, Rachael Cabral-Guevara, Brad Pfaff, and Romaine Quinn; Reps. Alex Dallman, Robert Wittke, Elijah Behnke, Barbara Dittrich, Bob Donovan, Jodi Emerson, Joy Goeben, Russell Goodwin, Chanz Green, Rick Gundrum, Dan Knodl, Rob Kreibich, Scott Krug, Tony Kurtz, Paul Melotik, Clint Moses, David Murphy, Jeffrey Mursau, Jerry O'Connor, William Penterman, Pricilla Prado, Amaad Rivera-Wagner, Christine Sinicki, Shae Sortwell, Rob Swearingen, Duke Tucker, Ron Tusler, Randy Udell, Nancy VanderMeer, Rep. Chuck Wichgers, Shannon Zimmerman, David Steffen, and Calvin Callahan         

Waters down state's personal finance course requirement by allowing it to be fulfilled in on-campus banking programs or with AP Business with Personal Finance, which contains just 25 hours of Personal Finance instruction.