UPDATE: the 2023 Financial Education Bill Tracker from Next Gen Personal Finance provides daily updates on which state legislatures have introduced financial education bills for grades K-12 throughout 2023.

How many states are NOW guaranteeing all high school students will benefit from a personal finance course? 

It was 12 when we last updated the tracker in April and the answer today is....14! Here's the latest NGPF FinEd Bill Tracker. 

Here are the highlights regarding Georgia (#13) and Michigan (#14), courtesy of CNBC:  

• Georgia: "...SB 220, a bill requiring personal finance classes for high school students. Starting in the 2024-2025 school year, all 11th- and 12th-grade students will need to take at least a half-credit course in financial literacy before graduation."
• Michigan: "Michigan’s legislation [HB5190] requires that all high school students take a half-credit course in personal finance before they graduate. That course can count as a math, arts, language or language other than English requirement at the discretion of local school boards. The law will go into effect for students starting eighth grade in the 2023-24 school year."

While only 14 states currently guarantee a personal finance course in high school, when fully implemented, those states represent 38% of the high school student population (see updated NGPF State of Financial Education report). 

Other notable updates since April: 

• New Hampshire's HB1263 became law in May. It reads: "The school board shall ensure that personal finance literacy instruction designed to
  prepare students for success in making financial decisions is taught as part of the curriculum. Personal finance literacy skills may be embedded in an existing course or grade level program of studies."
  
  • We will be monitoring the implementation of this law in the years ahead to see whether schools use this as an opportunity to guarantee all students take a personal finance course. Currently about 6% of NH students are guaranteed to take such a course. 
• Illinois's SB3902 became law in May and would allow a semester (or part of a semester) course to count towards the two year social studies requirement. 
• New Jersey (A4355) and Pennsylvania (SB1243) both introduced bills in the past month. 

In terms of states whose financial education bills still are active (or where regulatory action may lead to a personal finance guarantee): 

• Montana has a state Board of Education meeting in mid-July where they will decide the fate of a recommendation from the Chapter 55 Taskforce and Negotiated Rulemaking Committee to "add one required half-credit of economic and financial literacy into either the three units of social studies or the two units of career and technical education."
• South Carolina's H630 currently sits in Conference Committee and should have a resolution within the next week. 
• Both Massachusetts and California legislation would provide funding for financial education and should be decided within the next month. The California funding would be especially notable since California ranks #49 today when it comes to access to financial education courses at the high school level. 

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Only one day before the NGPF Summer Conference on Saturday, June 25th. Lots of great opportunities to collaborate with your peers (more than 700 have registered already!). Sign up here. 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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