With enough intrigue to make March Madness seem tame by comparison, bills regarding high school financial education access are making their way through state legislatures right now. Here are five ways to use the NGPF Financial Education Bill Tracker to follow bills and make a direct impact on financial education policy in your state!

You already know about NGPF's free, world-class curriculum and professional development for personal finance teachers. Did you know NGPF also offers free advocacy resources? In addition to the LIVE U.S. Dashboard, Annual State of Financial Education Reports, Advocacy Toolkit, and Documentaries, NGPF tracks state legislative efforts to guarantee personal finance courses for all high school students via the NGPF Financial Education Bill Tracker.

1. Filter by state and by recent activity

Use the filter options beneath the map to filter for your state, or to filter for bills with the most recent updates.

A good (but not perfect) predictor for a bill's ultimate passage is how quickly it moves through its state legislature. Bills that stagnate for months typically don't end up getting signed into law.

2. Sign up for alerts

Click any on any bill title from the NGPF Financial Education Bill Tracker, and you'll be redirected to the bill's state legislative webpage. Most state legislative websites allow you to sign up for text or email alerts so that anytime a bill you care about is moving, you hear about it first!

3. Screen and improve bills

Not all bills do the same thing! Before you dive into the details of a specific bill, read the bill's Summary for a quick overview. Your time is valuable, so our team cuts through the jargon of state statutes in order to help you understand each bill at a glance.

In addition, check out the Sponsors column and look up the Primary Sponsor for any bill you care about. Another good predictor for the likelihood of a bill's ultimate passage is whether the primary Sponsor is in their legislature's leadership (Education Committee Chair, Majority Leader, Senate President, Speaker, Pro Tem, etc).

4. Get involved at the most opportune time

Bear with me - in case you don't remember Schoolhouse Rock - but financial education bills usually go through this process:

1. Sponsor introduces bill in 1st chamber (House/Assembly or Senate)
2. Bill receives a hearing the 1st chamber's Education Committee
3. Bill gets voted on and reported out of 1st chamber's Education Committee
4. Bill receives a vote on the floor in the 1st chamber
5. Bill is transmitted to 2nd chamber
6. Repeat step 2 in the 2nd chamber
7. Repeat Step 3 in the 2nd chamber
8. Repeat Step 4 in the 2nd chamber
9. Bill is transmitted to the Governor
10. Bill is signed into law

Use the "Updates" column from the NGPF Financial Education Bill Tracker to identify when Education Committee Hearings (Steps 2 and 6) and Floor Votes (Steps 4 and 8) are imminent. These are the steps when lawmakers most urgently need to hear from teachers and advocates who care about this issue!

5. Get the inside scoop

See the bills with the tag "Mission 2030"? Those are bills in which NGPF's affiliated advocacy nonprofit, the NGPF Mission 2030 Fund, is directly involved. The Mission 2030 Fund team works with lobbyists to navigate each state's unique, complex political landscape, with the ultimate goal of guaranteeing all students a standalone personal finance course before they graduate high school. Get in touch if you want to get involved with a bill that's currently moving in your state, or for future efforts!

Thank you for reading and advocating!

The Mission 2030 movement is people-powered. Thanks for reading, and for continuing to push for life-changing personal finance education in your schools, your districts, your community, and your states!

Mission 2030 is the NGPF Community's goal that by the year 2030, all U.S. high schoolers will be guaranteed to take a standalone personal finance course of at least one semester before graduation. NGPF is making strides toward this goal through a combination of grassroots efforts and state-level campaigns led by our affiliated advocacy nonprofit, the NGPF Mission 2030 Fund.

About the Author

Christian Sherrill

Former teacher, forever financial education nerd. As NGPF's Director of Growth & Advocacy, Christian is laser-focused on our mission to guarantee all students a rigorous personal finance course before crossing the high school graduation stage. Having paid down over $40k in student loans in the span of 3 years - while living in the Bay Area on an entry level teacher's salary - he's eager to help the next generation avoid financial pitfalls one semester at a time.

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